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STUDENTS

Thousands of German students protest against maths exam deemed ‘too difficult’

It's not unusual for school pupils to find tests difficult. But students in Germany have taken it to the next level by launching petitions against their final secondary-school maths exam.

Published: 6 May 2019 11:19 CEST
Updated: 6 May 2019 12:23 CEST
Thousands of German students protest against maths exam deemed 'too difficult'
Photo: DPA

More than 60,000 people have signed the petitions launched by pupils in Bavaria, Lower Saxony, Bremen, Hamburg and Saarland, as well as in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Berlin, Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, reported German media.

On Monday morning, more than 55,000 people had signed the petition to the Bavarian Ministry of Culture. In it, the students call on the Ministry to adapt the scoring system for the maths section of the exam so that it matches the difficulty level.

“We high-school graduates ask that the scale of the mathematics exam in Bavaria be lowered in 2019 and adapted to the degree of difficulty,” the petition stated.

They said many of the tasks, particularly concerning geometry and statistics, had not been seen before in class by students, and were “more difficult” than previous years.

SEE ALSO: What to know about the different types of schools as an expat parent in Germany

Some students also complained about having too many questions to complete in the time given for the exam, which took place last Friday.

The Abitur is a pivotal national set of exams for German students leaving secondary school for university, and can shape their future careers.

Pupils across several states urged authorities to check the content of the maths test and reform the scoring system.

More than 3,400 have supported a petition from Hamburg pupils to the school authorities so far. Meanwhile, in Lower Saxony, pupils demanded “an immediate statement and a just solution”. More than 10,400 people have supported the call so far.

In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern a similar petition has gathered more than 3,000 supporters, while in Saarland more than 3,000 people have backed a similar call.

States to launch investigation

Bavaria's Culture and Education Minister Michael Piazolo of the Freie Wählen (Free Voters), told DPA that the matter would be looked into. 

“Of course we take this seriously and will carefully examine it,” he said. Piazolo added that he wanted to talk to experts and teachers about this on Monday.

SEE ALSO: 'The teacher shortage is the worst it has ever been'

The pupils have also been backed by the Bavarian Teachers' Association. Simone Fleischmann, president of the association, told DPA that there had been a lot of unnecessary text in one part of the exam. “Many” pupils were therefore not finished in time, she said.

In Lower Saxony, a spokesman for the Ministry of Culture told DPA: “We will have a look at the petition and then have the tasks examined professionally.”

In Hamburg, the spokesman for the school authorities pointed out that the examination was only on Friday, and they had not yet looked into it.

'Unfair' questions

It's not the first time German students have protested against exams in public. Last year pupils in the southwestern state of Baden-Württemberg protested against the English-language portion of their Abitur, which they said had outdated references.

Tens of thousands of people signed an online petition demanding that officials update the scoring system in light of what they described as “unfair” questions.

Are you a teacher or student in Germany? Do you have views on this issue? Let us know.

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EDUCATION

English-language programmes at Danish universities face cuts

Denmark's government has agreed on a plan to significantly reduce the number of courses offered in English in the country's universities.

Published: 2 July 2021 16:31 CEST
English-language programmes at Danish universities face cuts
Life sciences faculty hold an open house at Copenhagen University. The university is now expected to reduce admissions as part of a plan to decentralise higher education in Denmark. Photo: Thomas Lekfeldt / Ritzau Scanpix

At the end of June, the plan aims to reduce the number of English-language higher education programmes while also expanding educational opportunities outside of Denmark’s major cities.

The exact number of courses to be cut – and where they will be cut – depends on the future employment of graduates.

Cuts to English-language programmes

The reduction of English-language programmes at institutions of higher education is rooted in an effort to reduce rising costs of state educational grants (SU) in Denmark. Despite attempts to reduce SU expenses, the cost is expected to rise to 570 million kroner by 2025, far above the cap of 449 million kroner set in 2013. 

There are a number of cases in which non-Danish citizens are entitled to SU, from moving to Denmark with one’s parents, marrying a Danish citizen, residing in Denmark for more than 5 years, status as a worker in Denmark, and more.

The reduction is targeted at English-language programmes where few English-speaking students find employment in Denmark after graduation, according to Denmark’s Ministry of Education and Research. 

Among the targeted programmes are business academies and professional bachelor programmes, where 72 percent of students are English-speaking and only 21 percent find work in Denmark after completing their education. 

However, programmes where higher proportions of English students enter the Danish workforce, and those that have a unique significance on the regional labour market, will be exempt from the reduction. This amounts to 650 education institutions around the country. 

In 2016, students demonstrated against cuts in SU. Photo: Emil Hougaard / Ritzau Scanpix

The agreement also establishes a financial incentive for institutions that graduate English-speaking students who remain to work in Denmark.

According to a June 10 analysis from consulting firm Deloitte, EU students who receive higher education in Denmark contribute an average of nearly 650,000 kroner to Denmark’s public coffers over a lifetime. 

However, the report notes, a student’s positive or negative contribution depends on how long they stay in Denmark. Although students who leave Denmark shortly after graduating constitute a cost to the Danish state, the analysis found that the contribution of students who stay in Denmark to work offsets the cost of those who leave.

The analysis expressed concern that reducing opportunities for English-language higher education could “have a number of unintended negative consequences,” including deterring students who might stay in Denmark to work from moving in the first place. There’s also the risk that it will become more difficult to recruit foreign researchers to Danish universities, which could impact education quality, the analysis claims.

The UCN professional school in Thisted is expected to open one new training program as a result of the decentralisation plan. Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

Decentralisation of Danish education

The plan to decentralise higher education in Denmark not only expands educational opportunities outside of Denmark’s major cities, but it also aims to reduce enrollment in higher education within major cities by 10 percent by 2030 (but not more than 20 percent).

For example, a law programme will be established in Esbjerg, a medical programme in Køge and a veterinary programme in Foulum.

Minister of Education and Research Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen said the goal was to offer students educational opportunities regardless of where they live within Denmark and strengthen the economy outside of major cities. 

However, the Danish Chamber of Commerce, Dansk Erhverv, expressed concern that the decentralisation plan doesn’t factor in labour demands within Denmark’s major cities.

Mads Eriksen, head of education and research policy at Dansk Erhverv, said it was “unwise” for programmes to reduce acceptance rates to in-demand fields in that particular city. 

“They are trying to solve a problem with labour in the countryside, but at the same time they are creating labour problems in the cities,” Eriksen said. “The English-language programme cuts are far more aligned with the demands of the labour market.”

Denmark has utilised unemployment-based admission for higher education since 2015. Programmes whose graduates experience unemployment consistently 2 percent higher than average are subject to a 30 percent admission cut.

Eriksen thinks it shouldn’t be a matter of reducing admissions across several universities by

“For example, we have five philosophy education programmes in Denmark, each of which have high unemployment rates among graduates,” Eriksen said, referencing a recent Dansk Erhverv analysis. 

He would prefer to see resources concentrated into making a couple of those programmes the best they can be and closing the rest, versus reducing admissions in all five programmes. “We have to be ready to close programmes that continue to have high unemployment, not just reduce them.”

In 2018, the University of Southern Denmark closed one English-language program and converted two from English to Danish. Photo: Tim Kildeborg Jensen / Ritzau Scanpix

Opposite impacts on provincial institutions

Gitte Sommer Harrits, vice chancellor at VIA University College, shared concern that although the decentralised education aspect of the plan aims to increase the number of students at provincial universities, the reduction of English-language programmes is likely to have the opposite effect.

A report from the organisation Akademikerne in early June found that international students have played a significant role filling educational institutions outside of Danish cities. Nine of the 10 educational institutions with the largest proportion of English-speaking students are outside the country’s largest cities. 

The University of Southern Denmark in Sønderborg has the highest proportion of international students; 40 percent of its 628 students are not affiliated with Denmark or other Nordic countries. 

While significantly larger with nearly 37,000 students, Copenhagen University has 5.2 percent international students.

Already in 2018, the University of Southern Denmark closed one English-language programme and converted two others from English to Danish after the Danish government ordered universities to reduce the number of international students.

Harrits said she found the possible closure of English-language programmes drawing international students to provincial areas to be puzzling when paired with the intention to decentralise education.

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