Scientific training

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The scientific further education comprises all courses of study, which are often taken after a first professional qualification and after a phase of professional activity and which are appropriately prepared with regard to the target group in terms of content and didactic and methodological at university level and take into account the specific time budget of working people. Scientific continuing education is usually linked to professional experience, but does not necessarily require a university degree . It can be degree-related (e.g. certificate, diploma, master's degree) or not degree-related. As a rule, it is job-related, but can also serve to gain general knowledge.

Practice of scientific further education

In addition to teaching and research , continuing education is one of the statutory tasks of universities in Germany. The German Society for Scientific Further Education and Distance Learning (DGWF) with 300 institutional and personal members (2015) is the relevant advocacy group for scientific further education in Germany. The society is divided into three sections and is also organized regionally in currently eight national groups.

The DGWF names more than 180 institutions at various universities and technical colleges in German-speaking countries that are active in the field of scientific further education. Only a few universities - Ursula Bade-Becker from Bielefeld University estimates around 10 to 15 percent - have not yet developed this area.

In fact, the number of offers, the variety of offers and the need-based offerings have increased considerably in recent years. This should not, however, obscure the fact that the continuing education activities of the universities, measured against the entire spectrum of classic university tasks (teaching, studies, research) as well as the absolute number of continuing education offers in Germany and the other German-speaking countries, are still of no central importance . This applies regardless of the fact that further education at individual universities can take on an important role due to special circumstances, as the example of the "Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg" shows with its "Center for Lifelong Learning (C3L)". The "German University for Further Education" in Berlin and the "Danube University" in Krems / Austria, which are now part of the private company "Steinbeis University", have focused on the topic of higher education.

The share of higher education continuing education offers in the overall continuing education market is low: According to information in the 2006 "Reporting System Further Education IX - Integrated General Report on the Further Education Situation in Germany", the proportion of universities has increased from four percent (1991–2000) to two percent (2003) all participation cases decreased (p. 284).

However, the potential that the universities have with their further education offers is highly valued: "The need for scientific further education is increasing", says Peter Faulstich , chair for adult education / further education at the University of Hamburg and former chairman of the DGWF. And: “The universities are increasingly trying to use this potential for their own development. In view of the drastically decreasing public funds for mastering the core tasks of research and teaching, an activating factor is to use further training activities as an instrument of resource acquisition. "

However, expansion and diversification also lead to confusion and lack of transparency, especially on the part of potential users of higher education. Market transparency is therefore the order of the day. This also applies to the entire education system.

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