and Master Programmes in German Higher Education Institutions

3 Major facts concerning the introduction of B/MIn this section the current situation concerning Bachelor and Master degrees will be examined.An overview of subject areas, titles, duration, and enrolment will be given. Whereasfollowing chapters will focus more on the process of developing these degrees and on futuredevelopments, this chapter attempts to provide a snapshot of the current situation.3.1 Programmes3.1.1 Number of programmesThe HRK Hochschulkompass (HSK) lists 549 Bachelor and 371 Master programmes inFebruary 2002 – a total of 920 programmes 12 . Given a total number of 9460 study programmesat German higher education institutions, 9,7% of programmes do already lead tothe new degrees – 5,8% to Bachelor and 3,9% to Master degrees. 60% of these new programmesare Bachelor and 40% are Master programmes.This data is roughly in line with data from Jahn (2002) drawn from the Länder ministries incharge of recognising B/M. According to Jahn, 1093 B/M programmes had received officialrecognition in September 2001. Jahn also reports the sectoral distribution of these programmes:64% of the new degrees are offered by universities and 36% by FHs.3.1.2 Timing of introductionIt is interesting to understand institutions’ timing of the introduction of the new degrees.How many of them had introduced their first B/M already prior to the HRG change in 1998,how many have done so right after the change of law, and how many are still planning to doso in the future? In our survey, we therefore asked when the first Bachelor and Master programmeswere (going to be) introduced. According to our respondents, these programmeshave existed for a somewhat longer time at universities and TUs than at FHs. Five respondents(or 9%) in the FH sector indicated that programmes started before 1998 (before thechange in law), compared with 11 (or 20%) in the university sector, and six (or 38%) amongthe TUs. The differences between the sectors have now become smaller. 37 (or 66%) ofFHs indicate that Bachelor and Master programmes started previous to 2001-02, comparedto 42 (or 75%) of universities, and 15 (or 94%) of TUs. 13 or 24% of FHs, 6 or 11% of universities,and 1 or 6% of TUs report that Bachelor and Master programmes will be implementedin 2001-02 or later, while 4 or 7% of FHs and 6 or 11% of universities (and no TUs)report that a decision has not yet been made.3.1.3 Subject areasJahn (2002) provides information on the distribution of the new degrees across subject areas.13 According to this data, Engineering is the area with the highest number of B/M, followedby Humanities & Social Sciences and Economics. However, there are significant12 For other statistical analysis in this chapter, we draw on HSK data from October 2001, when the total numberof B/M programmes was still 774.13 This information is based on data provided by the Länder ministries. Note that Jahn’s classification does notfollow the SB.19