Dr. Jessica Ordemann

Providing access to higher education and establishing a conducive framework for lifelong learning are important goals of the European Higher Education Area. In the D-A-CH countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland), the group of “non-traditional students” includes graduates of technical and vocational training without a school-based university entrance qualification, employees, family workers and “learners in later life”. Based on current data, and operating from the perspective of diversity and inequality theory, the papers in this issue examine university access regulations, students’ time budgets, the effects of care responsibility, and student dropouts, including during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This paper studies the evolution of three higher education wage differentials from 1996 to 2019 in Germany. We distinguish between degrees from academic universities, degrees from universities of applied sciences, and the master craftsman\craftswoman certificate. The educational reference category is a standard degree within the German vocational education and training system. Based on samples of male and female workers from the Socio-Economic Panel Study (SOEP), regression methods show that all three educational wage differentials in 2019 exceeded the ones in 1996. However, workers graduating from universities experienced an inverse u-shape pattern with a maximum of about 0.5 log points around 2012....

This paper studies the evolution of three higher education wage differentials from 1996 to 2019 in Germany, a period when significant changes in the educational composition of the workforce took place. Based on regression analysis and samples of male and female workers from the Socio-Economic Panel Study, the study finds that while all three educational wage differentials increased, workers graduating from universities experienced an inverted u-shape pattern, reaching a plateau between 2011 and 2015. We argue that the decline which began after 2015, and which is detectable as well in the occupational prestige scores, may have resulted from a relative educational upskilling of the workforce as well as changes in the subject composition.

The 2021 August Newsletter Issue with a symposium about the virtual meeting topic "Rising to the Du Boisian Challenge: IPMs Contribution to Activism vs. Science".

This article gives an overview about current research on non-traditional students and alumni in Germany. Its aim is to highlight similarities and differences with their traditional counterparts. The paper concentrates on the motivation to study, study performance, and labor market success (status and income) of those who do not hold a traditional higher education entrance certificate but entered university via occupational qualifications. We show a widespread divergence in findings from no statistical difference at all to clear differences between non-traditional and traditional students and alumni. This holds true with regard to student motivation, study performance, and labor market success after graduation.

The presented article deals with recent trends in the German education system as identified in the national report “Education in Germany 2020”. It illustrates those trends by using examples from the school system and, furthermore, describes the challenges that arise. Special attention is given to the focus topic of education in a digitized world.

This contribution gives an overview of the German Report on Education. Published every two years, the indicator-based report takes a holistic approach to the German education system, from preschool to primary and secondary school to adult education. The article outlines the scope of the report and details its target audiences. Following this, the contribution describes the legislative framework of the report its legal foundation in Germany's Basic Law and its part in the strategy of educational monitoring in Germany. Then, it addresses the report's conceptual foundations, with its underlying characteristics, understanding of education, and indicator concept. Finally, the contribution presents findings from the German Report on Education.

The following paper inquires if studying without an official university entrance certification decreases the relationship between social origin and status attainment for those non-traditionals. Using data of the starting cohort adults SC6 7.0.0 of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS) I can show, that after five years in the labor market, the social origins of non-traditionals from the lower and middle classes have no effect on their status attainment, whereas it still effects – negatively - the status attainment of those non-traditionals from higher classes.