Kassel model (studies)

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The Kassel model is a model of graded scientific study courses, developed at the University of Kassel , formerly Kassel University . In addition, in integrated courses of study based on the Kassel model, half of those with general university entrance qualification (Abitur) and half of those with technical college entrance qualification can take the study places.

A core element of the Kassel model are the graded degrees (Diploma I and II). After seven to nine semesters, a first academic and fully professional qualification, the Diploma I , can be obtained. In terms of its academic value, this diploma is positioned above the new Bachelor's degree ( Bologna process ). The first stage of study up to Diploma I of the Kassel model is not a technical college course , but rather a so-called short scientific course , supplemented by a practical relevance that goes beyond the university standard with one or two scientifically accompanied practical semesters. In the subsequent three-semester in-depth study, a further degree can be obtained in the same field of study, which corresponds to the previous diploma at traditional universities and is equivalent to the master’s degree.

The Kassel model is very similar to the Anglo-Saxon system of Bachelor and Master courses. However, a continuous course of study is also included in the Kassel model today. The change to professional practice in the phase between Diploma I and the start of studies for Diploma II was, however, originally a further desired addition to the university experience of the students.

The project study is another core element in the Kassel model. Students determine, sometimes without professorial prerequisites, the subject and the approach in their main course, the project. For the financial underpinning of these student projects, funds from the university's budget are transferred to the student body, so that only a student body, the project council, decides on the allocation of these funds. The majority of the projects are presented by the professors and lecturers at the beginning of the lecture period in the project plenum; the students can also choose their project from this pool. This approach is particularly pronounced in architecture and the planning sciences, which today form Faculty 6 - Architecture, Urban Planning, Landscape Planning and which previously organized the overlapping courses in sub-areas in the teaching unit Study Area 1 (SB1) . A project culture that has largely been preserved to this day exists in the social affairs course.

In the course of the introduction of modules and credit points in conjunction with the new Bachelor and Master courses, the democratic element of student projects has come under great pressure. The reforms of the post-1968 era are thus facing a noticeable weakening.

The University of Kassel was the first university in Germany to offer a model of graded courses as early as the 1970s. Externally comparable models (the new bachelor's and master's degree programs according to the agreements of the European science ministers ( Bologna process )) are now being introduced at all German universities and in other EU countries involved in the Bologna process. However, these new continental European variants are not simply to be equated with the Anglo-Saxon Bachelor and Master degrees from which they are named.

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