idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
Guest commentary by Andreas Pinkwart *)
Overcoming structural faults often requires plenty of time and patience. This also applies to the lack of scholarships in Germany. In 2010, less than one percent of students received support of just EUR 80 per month through organizations for the promotion of young talent. The universities themselves did not have any of their own funds to promote talent. Students enrolled at universities of applied sciences were mostly left completely empty-handed. To remedy this situation, the National Scholarship program was launched in 2011. It was based on a pilot project developed and tested in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia over two years. According to the latest figures from the Federal Statistics Office, a total 24,276 students received National Scholarships of EUR 300 per month, funded by the federal government and over 7,000 sponsors with the cost split 50/50 and BAföG program recipients suffering no grant reduction. This means as many students received this additional support as those receiving grants through all public organizations for the promotion of young talent prior to the introduction of the National Scholarship put together. With the National Scholarships, the programs from other organizations improved as well and were extended to all types of higher education institutions which resulted in the proportion of scholarship holders in Germany doubling from under one percent to almost two over the last five years.
It is noteworthy that none of the concerns raised at the time have been substantiated by empirical evidence. Theories that have not proven true include the assumption that the financial support would mainly be granted to children from well-to-do families or that that only students of STEM subjects and financially strong universities and regions in Germany would benefit from the program. Out of all federal states, it was Saarland which achieved the highest number of National Scholarship holders, followed by Bremen and Saxony. And what is more important: the social characteristics of the students who received support largely match those of the student body in general. This particularly applies to the educational background of the family. The proportion of scholarship holders with a migration background is above average as well.
One can only hope that these politics will be practiced in a sustainable manner. Then the number of scholarship holders might continue to increase. Scholarship culture in Germany – it does develop!
*) Andreas Pinkwart was the Minister for Innovation, Technology and Research of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia from 2005 to 2010 and has served as Dean of HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management since 2011 where he also holds the Deutsche Bank Chair for Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship. He is regarded as the creator and, together with Annette Schavan, Germany's former Federal Minister of Education, as a trailblazer for the National Scholarship.
http://www.deutschlandstipendium.de/de/2319.php
http://www.hhl.de/scholarships
http://www.hhl.de
Prof. Dr. Andreas Pinkwart, Dean of HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, is regarded as the cr ...
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