Saarbrücken/Gütersloh (dpa/lhe) – Despite a wide range of courses, only 171 of the more than 31,000 students in Saarland studied part-time in the 2020/21 winter semester. With a rate of 0.5 percent, Germany’s smallest non-city state is still in last place in a country comparison, according to an evaluation by the Center for Higher Education Development (CHE), a subsidiary of the Gütersloh-based Bertelsmann Foundation.
According to this, almost two thirds of the 198 courses on offer can currently be taken part-time. That is ten more than in the winter semester 20/21. At Saarland University, around 90 percent of the courses are also offered part-time – but only by individual agreement.
When it comes to part-time students, Hamburg leads with a share of 21.1 percent ahead of North Rhine-Westphalia with 13.3 percent. However, in some federal states, including North Rhine-Westphalia and Hamburg, the location of distance learning universities is noticeable. Critics say this skews the statistics.
Part-time students are people who have to do less than full-time students during their studies, for example because they are already employed, have children or care for relatives.
According to its own statements, the CHE used the data from the University Compass of the University Rectors’ Conference for the winter semester 2021/22 to record the courses offered and the part-time offer rate. The proportion of actual part-time students, on the other hand, is based on information from the Federal Statistical Office for the 2020/21 winter semester.
