ProStudi
Projects
ProStudi – A Structured Introductory Phase Programme for Students at the Westfälische Hochschule Gelsenkirchen Bocholt Recklinghausen
Project number: 01PL12050
Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Project Management DLR “Teaching Quality of Higher Education”
Objective
Entry qualifications at universities have widened considerably in the past years. Regarding the regional catchment area of universities of applied sciences, regional differences can be expected. In regions shaped by an educated middle-class a different student clientele is to be found than in structurally weak regions. Taking the northern Ruhr area as an example, the consequences for students grow apparent.
The increasing widening of entry qualifications for beginners at the Westfälische Hochschule Gelsenkirchen Bocholt Recklinghausen (WHS) (formerly known as University of Applied Sciences Gelsenkirchen) leads to a need for increasing expenditure to stabilise the academic success of students. Against this background, the objective of the project “ProStudi” is to formally give school leavers with unfavourable conditions for studying the chance to meet the expected entry qualifications. This is to be achieved through the development and realisation of new support programmes in the introductory phase of the degree. By improving the conditions in the introductory stage, the academic success of an increasingly heterogenic student clientele will be enhanced and the dropout rate as well as the duration of study reduced. The Institute for Innovation Research and Management (ifi) evaluates the appropriate measures and develops a monitoring of the course of study.
Work Schedule
The measures by “ProStudi” are to support first-semester students with the increasingly diverse entry qualifications during their first years of study: the work package 2 (Arbeitspaket 2) refers to the structured support during the first years of study. This concerns the development and realisation of an entry academy.
The work package 3 (Arbeitspaket 3) allows to set up a monitoring of the course of study. On the one hand, this is done in order to enable appropriate control of information for the further development of measures for the realisation of the structured entry stage. On the other hand, it is to check the efficiency of the measures realised on target figures relevant to the degree course.
The programme for a structured entry stage developed within the project connects utilization interests on various levels: the further development of the entry stage and structural anchoring of appropriate measures in the processes of the university are the most important. The successfully realised measures have an effect on the financially relevant parameters for the university and presumably trigger economic effects. The developed monitoring of the course of study is to be integrated into the operational system of the university and ensures the informational basis for the targeting of supporting measures in the introductory phase. Overall, the acquired results will be scientifically edited and published. It is intended to pursue the planned activities in the second funding phase and beyond.
Contact:
Marc Wietzke
Phone: +49 (0) 234 915923-54
E-Mail: marc.wietzke(at)ifi-ge.de