Engineering

About Engineering
Engineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific, and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or invention.

One who practices engineering is called an engineer, and those licensed to do so may have more formal designations such as Professional Engineer, Chartered Engineer, Incorporated Engineer, or European Engineer. The broad discipline of engineering encompasses a range of more specialized subdisciplines, each with a more specific emphasis on certain fields of application and particular areas of technology.

The American Engineers' Council for Professional Development (ECPD, the predecessor of ABET) has defined engineering as follows:
The creative application of scientific principles to design or develop structures, machines, apparatus, or manufacturing processes, or works utilizing them singly or in combination; or to construct or operate the same with full cognizance of their design; or to forecast their behavior under specific operating conditions; all as respects an intended function, economics of operation and safety to life and property.

Bachelor of Engineering

In Germany, the Bachelor of Engineering was introduced as part of implementation of the Bologna process. However, this degree is in fact only offered by German Fachhochschule-institutions. German technical universities award a Bachelor of Science in engineering rather than the BEng degree. A German BEng is somewhat unusual since it generally lasts for three and a half years.

University-Collage study program

Bachelor's degrees in Germany

in Germany Bachelor's degrees, called Bakkalaureus, originally existed in Germany, but were abolished up until 1820 as part of educational reforms at this time. The Magister degree, originally a graduate degree, became the new first degree after five years of study. In 1899 a second first degree, the Diplom, was introduced when the Technische Hochschulen received university status.
However, in 1998 a new educational legislation reintroduced the Bachelor's degree (first degree after 3 years of study) in Germany. Today these degrees can be called either Bakkalaureus or Bachelor (in accordance with federal law) but the English term is more common. The traditional degrees will be abolished by 2010. University-Collage study program

College & university Germany

....All courses at the roughly 250 classic universities and universities of applied sciences used to be free - like any school in Germany. One might also say the government offered a full scholarship to everyone. However, students that took longer than the Regelstudienzeit ("regular length of studies", a statistically calculated average that is the minimum amount of time necessary to successfully graduate) did have to pay Langzeitstudiengebühren ("long-time study fees") of about 500 EUR per semester, in a number of states. Today there are a few private institutions (especially business schools) that charge tuition fees, but they don't have high recognition and high standards as public universities have. Another negative impact of the private institution in Germany is that they usually have only one or few subjects so that they can't get high recognition in international competition.
One does have to pay for one's room and board plus one's books. After a certain age, one must obtain obligatory student health insurance (50 EUR per month), and one always has to pay for some other social services for students (40-100 EUR per semester). Students often enjoy very cheap public transport (Semesterticket) in and around the university town. There are cheap rooms for students built by the Studentenwerk, an independent non-profit organization partially funded by the state. These may cost 150 EUR per month, without any food. Otherwise an apartment can cost 500 EUR, but often students share apartments, with 3 or 5 people per apartment. Food is about 100 EUR (figures for 2002). Many banks provide free accounts to students up to a certain age (usually around 25).
The German Constitutional Court recently ruled that a federal law prohibiting tuition fees is unconstitutional, on the grounds that education is the sole responsibility of the states. Following this ruling, several state governments (e.g. in Bavaria and North Rhine-Westfalia) proclaimed their intention to introduce tuition of around €500 per semester within the next year. Many state legislatures have passed laws that allow, but do not officially force, universities to demand tuition up to a limit, usually €500. In preparation to comply with several local laws aiming to give universities more liberty in their decisions but requiring them to be more economical (effectively privatising them), many universities hastily decided to introduce the fees, usually without any exceptions other than a bare minimum. As a direct result, student demonstrations in the scale of 100 to 10000 participants are frequent in the affected cities, most notably Frankfurt in Hesse, where the state officially considered introducing universal tuition fees in the €1500 range.
There are no university-sponsored scholarships in Germany, but a number of private and public institutions hand out scholarships, usually to cover the cost of living and books. Moreover, there is a law (BAFöG or Bundesausbildungsförderungsgesetz) that sees to it that needy people can get up to 550 EUR per month for 4-5 years if they or their parents cannot afford all the costs involved with studying. Part (typically half) of this money is given as an interest-free loan and has to be paid back. Many universities planning to introduce tuition fees have announced their intention to use a part of the money to create scholarship programmes, although the exact details are mostly vague.
Most students will move to the university town if it is far away. Getting across Germany from Flensburg to Konstanz takes a full day (1000 km or 620 miles). But, as mentioned above, there is no university-provided student housing on campus in Germany, since most campuses are scattered all over the city for historical reasons. Traditionally, university students rented a private room in town, which was their home away from home. This is no longer the standard, but one still finds this situation. One third to one half of the students works to make a little extra money, often resulting in a longer stay at university.
Figures for Germany are roughly:
1,000,000 new students at all schools put together for one year
400,000 Abitur graduations
30,000 doctoral dissertations per year
1000 habilitations per year (qualification to become a professor)
Degrees: Most courses lead up to a diploma called Diplom or Magister and these are equivalent to the Masters degree in other countries (after a minimum of 4 to 5 years). The doctoral degree usually takes another 3-5 years, with no formal classes, but independent research under the tutelage of a single professor. Most doctoral candidates work as teaching- or research assistants, and are paid a reasonably competitive salary.
Recently, changes related to the so-called Bologna-Agreement have started taking place to install a more internationally acknowledged system, which includes new course structures - the (hitherto unknown) Bachelor degree and the Master degree - and ETCS credits. These changes have not been forced on the universities and the hope has been that they will develop them from the bottom up. So far, students have been reluctant to start these new courses because they know that within Germany, employers are not used to them and prefer the well-known system. In the winter semester of 2001, only 5% of all students aspired to complete either a bachelor or master degree, but this has changed as many universities and universities of applied sciences change their course offerings to exclusively provide only bachelor or master degree certificates (e.g. Bremen or Erfurt).
In addition, there are the courses leading to Staatsexamen (state examinations), e. g. for lawyers and teachers, that qualify for entry into German civil service, but which are not recognized elsewhere as an academic degree (although the courses are sometimes identical).
On the whole though, Germany universities are internationally recognized. This is demonstrated by their positioning in international university rankings. Ten German universities were listed in the top 200 universities in the world in the 2006 THES - QS World University Rankings. back 1 , 2

College and university : Germany

Upon leaving school, students may choose to go on to university; however, most (male) students will have to serve nine months of military or alternative service (Zivildienst) beforehand.
The Gymnasium graduation (Abitur) opens the way to any university; there are no entrance examinations. The Abiturdurchschnittsnote (similar to GPA in the US, or A-Level results in the UK) is the deciding factor in granting university places; an institution may quote an entry requirement for a particular course. This is called numerus clausus (literally "restricted number"), but it generally only applies to popular courses with very limited places; for example a medical course could require an Abiturgrade of between 1.0 to 1.5.
While at Gymnasium a student cannot take courses that result in university credits. This might also have to do with the fact that the credit system is unknown in Germany so far, although it is being introduced with the Bologna process that is intended to unify education and degrees for all EU states. What counts at the end of one's studies is a bundle of certificates ("Scheine") issued by the professors proving that the required courses (and/or exams) were successfully taken. With a few exceptions students may not receive certificates for courses they attend before officially matriculating at the university (i.e. while at Gymnasium), although their attendance may sometimes be counted as such. Usually there are few required specific courses, rather students choose from a more or less broad range of classes in their field of interest, while this varies greatly upon the choice of subject. Once a student has acquired the needed number of such certificates and can (if he or she is a Magister student) verify his or her regular attendance at a minimum number of optional courses, he or she can decide to register for the final examinations. In many cases, the grades of those certificates are completely discarded and the final diploma grade consists only of the grades of the final exams and master thesis. This can potentially impair the student's motivation to achieve excellence during their studies, although most students try to aim for higher scores in order to comply with requirements for BAFöG or scholarships, or, simply, for vanity.
At Gymnasium, students are under strict observation by teachers, and their attendance at all courses is checked regularly. At German universities, however, class attendance is only checked for courses in which the student requires a certificate, and attendance checks are usually a lot more liberal (usually a signature or sign is considered proof of attendance, even if the signing is not supervised) and sporadic, although repeated failure to attend a course without a proper excuse (i.e. sick note) usually results in the loss of the chance to get a certificate. Life at German universities may seem anonymous and highly individual at first, but most students find a group of fellow students with common interests in their first year, and then often take courses together and study in this group up to the final exam studies.
While there are curricula for the first two or three years in the sciences, in the liberal arts, every student picks the lectures and seminars he or she prefers (usually admission to the Zwischenprüfung requires three certificates, which may each be earned in one of several different seminars), and takes the exams at the end of the study period. Each student decides for him- or herself when he or she feels ready for the final exam. Some take the minimum 4 years, most take 5-6 years, some may even spend 10 years at university (often because they changed subjects several times). After 13 years at school plus maybe 1 year in the military, graduates may sometimes be almost 30 years old when they apply for their first real job in life, although most will have had a number of part-time jobs or temporary employments between semesters.
If they have successfully studied at university for two years (after a Zwischenprüfung/Vordiplom), students can transfer to other countries for graduate studies. Usually they finish studies after 4-6 years with a degree called the Diplom (in the sciences) or Magister (in the arts), which is equivalent to a M.Sc. or M.A., or a Magister Artium.
A special kind of degree is the Staatsexamen. It is a government licensing examination that future doctors, teachers, lawyers, judges, public prosecutors and pharmacists have to pass to be allowed to work in their profession. Students usually study at university for 4-8 years before they take the first Staatsexamen. Afterwards teachers and jurists go on to work in their future jobs for two years, before they are able to take the second Staatsexamen, which tests their practical abilities in their jobs. The first Staatsexamen is equivalent to a M.Sc., M.A, LL.M. or J.D.
However, there is another type of post-Abitur university training available in Germany: the Fachhochschulen (Universities of Applied Science), which offer similar degrees as classic universities, but often concentrate on applied science (as the English name suggests). While in classic universities it is an important part to study WHY a method is scientifically right that point is not so important to students at Universities of Applied Science. There it is stressed to study what systems and methods exist, where they come from, their pros and cons, how to use them in practice and last but not least when are they to use and when not. Students start their courses together and graduate (more or less) together and there is little choice in their schedule (but this must no be at several studies). To get on-the-job experience, internship semesters are a mandatory part of studying at a Fachhochschule. Therefore the students at U-o-A-S are better trained in transferring learned knowledge and skills into practise while students of classic Universities are better trained in method developing. But as professors at U-o-A-S have done their doctorate at classic universities and classic universities have regarded the importance of practice both types are coming closer and closer. It is nowadays more a differentiation between practice orientation and theoretical orientation of science.
After about 4-5 years (depending on how a student arranges the courses he or she takes over the course of his studies, and on whether he or she has to repeat courses) a Fachhochschule student has a complete education and can go right into working life. Fachhochschule graduates received traditionally a title that starts with "Dipl." (Diploma) and ends with "(FH)", e.g. "Dipl. Ing. (FH)" for a graduate engineer from a Fachhochschule. The FH Diploma is roughly equivalent to a Bachelor degree. An FH Diploma does not usually qualify the holder for a Ph.D. program directly -- many universities require an additional entrance exam or participation in theoretical classes from FH candidates. The last point is based on the history. When FHs or U-o-A-S were set up the professors were mainly teachers from higher schools but did not hold a doctorate. This has completely changed since the end of the eighties, but professors of classic universities still regard themselves as "the real professors", which indeed is no longer true. Due to the Bologna process the bachelor and master degrees are introduced to classic universities and universities of applied sciences in the same way.back 1 next 3

College and university | Germany

Universities in Germany are part of the free state education system, which means that there are very few private universities and colleges like Munich Business School for example. While the organizational structure claims to go back to the university reforms by Wilhelm von Humboldt in the early 19th century, it has also been criticized by some (including the German-born, former Stanford University president Gerhard Casper) for having an unbalanced focus, more on education and less on research, and the lack of independence from state intervention. Many of today's German public universities, in fact, bear less resemblance to the original Humboldt vision than, for example, a typical US institution.
German university students largely choose their own programme of study and professors choose their own subjects for research and teaching. This elective system often results in students spending many years at university before graduating, and is currently under review. There are no fixed classes of students who study together and graduate together. Students change universities according to their interests and the strengths of each university. Sometimes students attend two, three or more different universities in the course of their studies. This mobility means that at German universities there is a freedom and individuality unknown in the USA, the UK, or France. next 2, 3

Germany and Education

Responsibility for German education system lies primarily with the states while the federal government only has a minor role. Optional kindergarten education is provided for all children between three and six years old, after which school attendance is compulsory for nine or ten years. In Germany, students are graded on a scale of one through six, one being high and six being very low, or failing. Home-schooling is not permitted in any of the German Bundesländer except if a child is suffering from an illness that prevents school attendance. There are also rare cases where foreign families living for a short time in Germany have been granted exemption from compulsory schooling in order to home-school their children in their own language. Primary education usually lasts for four years (6 in Berlin) and public schools are not stratified at this stage. In contrast, secondary education includes four types of schools based on a pupil's ability as determined by teacher recommendations: the Gymnasium includes the most gifted children and prepares students for university studies; the Realschule has a broader range of emphasis for intermediary students; the Hauptschule prepares pupils for vocational education, and the Gesamtschule or comprehensive school combines the three approaches. There are also Förderschulen (schools for the mentally challenged and physically challenged). One in 21 students attends a Förderschule In order to enter a university, high school students are required to take the Abitur examination; however, students possessing a diploma from a vocational school may also apply to enter. A special system of apprenticeship called Duale Ausbildung allows pupils in vocational training to learn in a company as well as in a state-run school. Although Germany has had a history of a strong educational system, recent PISA student assessments demonstrated a weakness in certain subjects. In the test of 43 countries in the year 2000, Germany ranked 21st in reading and 20th in both mathematics and the natural sciences, prompting calls for reform.