1. Graduate Courses and Projects Rolf Drechsler University of Bremen, Germany

2. Outline Motivation Programs – Diplom vs. Master – New directions Project Summary

3. Motivation Universität (9 semester) – Vordiplom after 4 semester Fachhochschule (8 semester) – No PhD program – Vordiplom after 4 semester – Industry oriented Berufsakademie (6 semester) – Combination with industrial partners – Half of the time spent in companies

4. Motivation Classical education in Germany – Grundstudium (4 semester) – Hauptstudium (4 semester) – Diplomarbeit (1 semester) New ideas: – What is a “Diplom”? – Make it more international!

5. New Trends Bachelor and Master programs – More international – unify through Germany/EU Students Degrees – English lectures New Disciplines – Multi-media – Systems engineering – “Bioinformatik”

6. Programs in Bremen Diplominformatik Medien-Informatik – Bachelor – Master Systems Engineering – Bachelor – Master Computer Science – Bachelor – Master

7. Problems Lectures in English Profile of new programs Number of professors and lecturers is constants Nearly no new resources Solution: – Courses as modules – credit points – Assistant Professors?

8. Assistant Professors Migration towards the US system Pro – More flexibility – More responsibility Con – More work load – Limited time contract – No experience – Unclear perspectives

9. Project Major part of “Hauptstudium” in Bremen Students are working in groups of 10-25 Organized by themselves Duration: 4 semester Topic is provided by instructor Students chose between 10 projects

10. Experience Students like it! Team work Work in large projects – comparable to industry Projects are dominated by few active students Problems in evaluation individual results

11. Conclusion Beside all the problems: Very well working system Project very successful Other (German) universities start similar courses Several changes at the moment, with unclear outcome Flexibility is important!