Students in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) have staged protests against the centre-right state government’s plans to introduce a new higher education law. Aspects they are criticising include a reintroduction of compulsory attendance at lectures and seminars.

NRW’s Christian Democrat-Free Democrat government took over from a Social Democrat-Green government last summer, and much of what the minister responsible for higher education, Isabel Pfeiffer-Poensgen (Independent), proposes represents a reversal of her predecessor’s policies. 

Student union representatives are above all worried about plans to allow institutions to reintroduce compulsory attendance of lectures and seminars, which was ended three years ago, doing away with student assistant speakers, and what the student union refers to as a “general scaling down of democracy in the higher education system”.

Pfeiffer-Poensgen’s chief goal is to grant institutions more academic autonomy. The Social Democrat-Green government introduced a so-called civil clause committing universities not to engage in military research. Pfeiffer-Poensgen does not intend to have it included in the new NRW higher education law, which NRW’s parliament is supposed to vote on in mid-2019. 

“I don’t see my main responsibility as that of telling others what should be done or not be done,” Pfeiffer-Poensgen already clarified last October, commenting on the civil clause, and stressing that university committees should discuss such issues. 

“This is where expertise is concentrated, and the people there are absolutely responsible individuals, so they are the ones who ought to discuss how to handle the topics in question.”

The minister argues along similar lines regarding compulsory attendance of seminars and lectures, maintaining that it should be up to individual institutions to decide whether or not they wish to check whether students attend events. 

However, she has not yet made up her mind about charging tuition fees for students from non-European Union countries, and would like to assess experience in Baden-Württemberg, where the Christian Democrat-Green government introduced such fees last year.

Student union representatives maintain that seminars and lectures would always be full of students if all lecturers really put their heart and soul into teaching. 

Isabell van Ackeren, an education scientist and vice-rector at the University of Duisburg-Essen, explains that her institution has opted for blended learning, combining attendance and online teaching. “A very large number of students have to earn their living, and some have children to look after or relatives to care for,” Van Ackeren notes.

And Metin Tolan, a professor of physics and deputy rector at the Technical University of Dortmund, says that the lecturers themselves are not always present when they should be, often without arranging for deputies. “How can I demand compulsory attendance for students if professors fail to turn up?” Tolan asks. 

According to Tolan, many lecturers prefer to delve into research instead of fulfilling their teaching duties, or they devote much of their time to business enterprises outside the universities. He stresses that there are no official checks on the attendance of lecturers. 

“Instead of pressing for compulsory attendance of students, the minister ought to take a closer look at this aspect,” Tolan says.

Michael Gardner Email: michael.gardner@uw-news.com