Dips, Peaks and Plains: Student Numbers and Degree Options, 1984 to Today
That sounds like it will be a very dry post …
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Possibly ... though it is to be hoped that the text will make the data more interesting. (At least it will be quite a colourful post later on!) We should start with a challenging input: Click on the link below to open a table of students per degree programmes. What does it tell you?
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The subject is called "Anglistik", not English Studies, English Philology or simply English.
The list of degree programmes has study options that do not exist any more.
The sorting mode is interesting: the list starts with "Promotion" (PhD programme) and ends with "Zusatz-u.Erg.Pr. Lehramt" (additional exam option for TEFL students, for taking third subjects). Actually that is not quite right – the list ends with "als 2. Studieng[ang].", below the line that divides "Summe HF+LA" (total student numbers for Magister with English Philology as a major and TEFL degrees) and the rest of the table below.
For those of you with enough German, four TEFL options are listed: Höheres Lehramt, for teachers to go into secondary schools, Lehramt an Realschulen, for teachers at middle schools, sonstige Lehramtsprüfungen – whatever those "other" exam types included – and an additional, third-subject degree programme.
The list also gives numbers for specific student groups: students with a leave of absence (Beurlaubte), female students, students with non-German backgrounds, and a combination of both latter groups (Ausländer/weiblich).
Across the table, the columns indicate which semester the various student groups are enrolled in. The column on the far right shows the total number of students; for the summer semester of 1984, 1,121 students are registered in all degree programmes on offer, and the vast majority are enrolled in one of the TEFL degrees.
What does all that mean, then?
Well, as always, tables and numbers are open to interpretation. In this case, the sorting of the different degree programmes indicates which importance and relevance is attached to the various study options.A PhD is the most academic degree that can be obtained, hence it is listed topmost. (Actually the Habilitation is the most academic degree, but no enrolment as a student is necessary for that, so it is not included in the list.)
The next-listed study options are university-internal as the Magisterprüfung or state-supervised as the Staatsexamen ohne Lehramt, but are essentially academic both in training and in job prospects. Even in 1984 it was not possible to study for a diploma in English Philology, though, or for a non teaching-related state exam. While ten years earlier, in 1974, there were students in higher semester listed in those rows, chances are that English Philology was a second major for them. As is usual in today's Master programmes, one subject would close with a thesis, and this would be the first major.
With TEFL degree options, the academic relevance is of a different kind: while TEFL students get an academic training, their future profession is seen to be less than academic – teaching at a school is, to university officials, not a highly academic profession. For that reason, they are last in the list – further down, only additional options such as English Philology as a minor in the Magister study option or additional degrees are listed.
If we now look at the overall numbers of students, we see a nearly inverse relation: it is the TEFL degrees that draw most students, in particular the höheres Lehramt, or studying TEFL for secondary schools. The 742 students enrolled in this degree programme are easily two-thirds of the total number of students. By contrast, the middle school TELF programme has, with the 94 heads listed, comparatively few students in total. In the Magister degree option, 'only' 164 students were enrolled, plus another 108 who went for English Philology as a minor subject. In the PhD degree option, we find only 29 students, none of them first-semester students. It is quite clear, then, that TELF for secondary schools is the favourite study option in 1984.
The few rows containing information about particular student groups are also interesting. 43 students were registered with leave of absence; most of them being enrolled in their fourth or sixth semester. It is probable that these students did a semester abroad. While it was not compulsory for TEFL students – unlike today – , students were advised to go abroad to improve their language skills. The Department had a number of exchange options, then as now.
The row below shows that the vast majority of students (761, that is 67%) were female: only about one third of all students were male. The numbers are not broken down according to degree programmes, but we can hazard a guess that the percentage of female PhD students, at least, would be considerably lower than 67%.
The number of international students, by contrast, is very low, with only 49 students in total. That is just over four per cent of all students. The distribution over the various semesters does not allow a clear pattern to emerge – international students, in conclusion, were not exactly common in 1984. Your average 1984 student, then, would most likely be female, and studying for a TEFL degree.
Have things changed by now?
Today, the university statistics do not report gender percentages, and international students are shown per Faculty only, not per degree programme. FlexNow has an inbuilt statistics programme, though, and a certain insight into the distribution of at least the international background of degree programmes is possible. The good news is that the number of international students has gone up in all programmes where English Philology is a study option. There are clear differences, though (click here to download a PDF): |
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In the BA degree programmes, more than 90 per cent of the students come from Germany. As the entrance requirement with regard to German language skills are set fairly high, this does not really come as much of a surprise. This is a breakdown of the top seven subject combinations (click in the table to download a PDF):
The diagrams shows that, in the non-teaching BA, German Studies comes topmost, followed by North American Studies - where language requirements can, on request, be handled a little less strictly, if the necessary German skills are acquired during the study time - , followed by General Linguistics, another subject where German language skills are of key importance. With the teaching-oriented BA programme, English could be combined with Chinese as a Foreign Language, where the number of international students could be expected to peak, but at present, only about 3% of the students choose this combination. This accounts for the small number of international students. The same is true for the Master of Education programme; as the separate subjects are not registered in FlexNow, no breakdown by subject is possible, but the overall percentage speaks for itself.
The case is different for the Master of Arts programmes. Especially the geographical background of the students in the English Philology Master programme is very diverse. The category "other" covers a total of 38 different countries, from Egypt through Jordan to Vietnam. The main reason for this is twofold: first, no German language skills are required for enrolment; and second, the degree does not absolutely require a second subject. Many international students cannot fulfil the admission requirements for two subjects as international BA degree programmes often focus on one subject only.
We currently have 1,350 students … so today's programmes are more attractive?
Enrolment numbers fluctuate quite a lot. The development of total student numbers in the decade before 1984 (the year is indicated by the red line) shows an increase in the Magister numbers and a steady decrease in the numbers of TEFL students.
After 1984, the numbers shows that this was more than a trend:
The steady drop of student numbers in both non-modularized degree programmes from around the winter semester of 2003/04 is due to the change to the Bachelor/Master system of study programmes which started in 2005/06 (teaching-oriented BA) and 2006/07 (non-teaching BA; dates indicated by red lines). The diagram listing the development of student numbers in the modularized programmes, by contrast, is far less clear-cut to read.
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The bundle of coloured lines apparently starting in 2003/04 seems to show that, on the whole, the attractiveness of studying English has dramatically dropped. However, we have to bear in mind that, in 1984, students were enrolled in one programme from start to finish, as it were. Today, students who wish to go into teacher's training have to do a BA first and then add a Master programme. Student numbers are shown according to programme in the diagram above.
If we stack the student numbers, things become clearer: there is a clear increase of student numbers in all programmes, and the TEFL study option – teaching-oriented BA followed by a Master of Education – still attracts by far the most students. While the TEFL BA student numbers are still slowly rising, student numbers in the Master of Education nearly stagnate.
Student numbers in the non-teaching BA programme develop in a fairly similar way to those of the Master in English Philology. After a slow start, numbers have picked up steadily; in the Master programme, there is even something of a jump upwards in the winter semester of 2015/16, the first time that the Single Honours Master programme was 'on the market'.
By contrast, the rise in student numbers in the BA and Master programmes in North American Studies – a study option that was completely unknown in 1984 – is less spectacular, with the BA numbers increasing more than their Master counterparts. Yet the total number of students enrolled in the six programmes currently on offer is satisfyingly high, with a total of 1,355 students currently on record – and students with English Philology or Anglophone Literature and Culture as their second majors or minors in the Master programmes are not even counted. Since they enrol only in their Master programme, not in minors (at least not as far as the student administration is concerned!), they are not in the statistics.
So … that's good, isn't it?
We certainly think so! Student numbers peaked around 1995 with a total of 1,484 students registered in our programmes, and we are nearly back to that.
If we view the combined teaching hours of our staff members in relation to the student numbers we take on, there's always room for improvement, though. This is nothing new and was also true in 1984. One year before, in June 1983, University officials called an emergency meeting of the Managing Directors of several departments, amongst them the English Department, because of "too few students". The Ministry had detected 58 hours of teaching that were "free", in other words: that were used for courses which had no (or very few) students. The Department thought differently, of course. They argued that each of the divisions should be considered separately, and that the lectors should not be taken into account at all, as they could not be used for teaching outside the practical English language section.
Today, we'd be happy to have a few more Master of Arts in North American Studies students, for example, and we are also looking forward to saying hello to more non-teaching related BA students. Since it is taxes that go into paying staff members, having drastically too few students means wasting the tax payers' money, or so it is alleged. The overall trend bodes well for us, though.
A major difference between 1984 and today is the persons responsible for the degree programmes. In 1984, it was the Minister for Arts and Sciences who had the final say in study regulations. Since 2003, the University has managed affairs relatively autonomously, as the responsibility for the University now lies with the University's Foundation Board.
Becoming a chartered university has had consequences for the study programmes, too, though. In the end, some kind of conformity must be guaranteed between the degrees conferred by Göttingen University to those of other universities. In order to achieve this, degree programmes must be accredited or certified. In the accreditation process – and this has to be repeated regularly in a number of years – the University has to provide evidence that the programmes can be completed successfully, that the learning outcomes are adequate and relevant for the typical jobs of graduates, and that teaching methods and contents are acceptable.
The next round of reaccreditation will begin in the summer semester of 2020, and we will then see where students feel we could do better. Watch this space and the social media for updates and feel free raise your voices!