Management Careers Made in Germany Studying at Private German Universities Pays Off Alexander P. Hansen Annette Doll Ajit Varma Management Careers Made in Germany Alexander P. Hansen Annette Doll Ajit Varma Management Careers Made in Germany Studying at Private German Universities Pays Off Alexander P. Hansen Annette Doll GCG Global Campus Germany GmbH Bonn, Germany Bonn, Germany Ajit Varma Amity Institute of Microbial Technology Amity University Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India ISBN 978-981-13-7134-9 ISBN 978-981-13-7135-6 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-7135-6 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd 2019 This work is subject to copyright. 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Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover credits: design- Thomas Howey image- Zoonar GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore V Foreword I “An investment in knowledge bears the most interest,” Benjamin Franklin famously said. His insight sums up an experience much older than the US. For centuries now, foreign students have appreciated Germany as a country with excellent institutions of higher learning, and an education here as an investment with a sustainable return. My native Saxony is a paramount example. Ever since the Freiberg Academy of Mining was set up in 1756 as the world’s first, foreigners came in considerable numbers to earn degrees in engineering as a basis for a career in the mining industry and government institutions. During the Meiji Restoration era, many Japanese came to Leipzig Univer- sity, then already half a century old, to receive a thorough education as future indus- trial and political leaders of their aspiring country. And for more than 200 years now, future forestry management experts from all over the world are trained at the Tharandt Academy of Forestry. All these are examples of public institutions of higher learning. However, during the last 30 years, the German system of higher education has been on a course of massive expansion. This expansion was to a great extent sustained by newly founded and state-acknowledged private universities and colleges. Some 120 of them have been established since the 1980s, offering about 220,000 additional stu- dents a chance to lay the foundations for their professional careers. Private institutions of higher learning have a special focus and are uniquely customer-oriented, driven by the demands of business for experts, and closely cooperating with top employers. Moreover, their mission is to not just train up future management experts, but to edu- cate future entrepreneurs. A prime example from Saxony is the HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management. Established by the Leipzig business community as the very first German business school 120 years ago, it ranks today among the top business schools in Europe and the world. Most importantly, during the last 25 years alone, its students and alumni have established more than 250 businesses, with an extraordinary survival rate of 90%. This indicates that an investment in “Education Made in Germany” is a profitable one and also of considerable benefit to society as a whole. Indeed, private graduate schools like the HHL have become a part of the thriving public–private inno- vation ecosystem that has propelled Germany to the top ranks among the developed VI Foreword I industrial countries. For example, SpinLab, the HHL Business Accelerator at Leipzig, is poised, as a recent newspaper headline had it, to become the heart of a German Silicon Valley, with scores of applications by start-ups piling in. The authors of the present book introduce you, dear reader, to such success stories pro- duced by “Education Made in Germany,” and provide you with comprehensive insight into private education in Germany. They do that on the basis of their expertise in how the growing network of private educational institutions is setting aspiring young people on the path to a management career. I sincerely hope that the information in this book is of great service to you and helps you decide on Germany as the educational launchpad of your future career. Germany has much more to offer than excellent higher education, though. Germany is renowned as a land of poets and philosophers, of inventors and tinkerers, of great scientific minds and practical men and women alike. Germany is home to an amazingly dense, varied and vibrant cultural landscape that greatly contributes to our spirit of innovation. That said, many foreigners who came here to study have learned to appreciate what Ger- many has to offer beyond education, and have decided to stay and pursue a career in business, academia, culture or the arts. Germany is open to bright minds and leader- ship personalities from all over the world. I invite you to come to Germany and help us staying one of the most innovative regions in Europe. I wish you an enjoyable and informative read! Sincerely, Michael Kretschmer Prime Minister of the Free State of Saxony, Dresden, in October 2018 Dresden, Germany VII Foreword II Finally, its done! As a father and Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany I have been waiting for this book for a long time. To prepare four children for an inter- national career calls for the selection of the best education for them. As a representative of the German Foreign Office, I have selected academic exchange between Germany and Canada as one of my main duties. In contrast to my new home country Canada, Germany has virtually no natural resources. Hence, it is well advised to position itself in a pole position in all areas of research, science, teaching and vocational training. The combination of university education with vocational training in a company—referred to as the “Dual System”—is unique to Germany and globally renowned. Alas in recent years a gap has developed between practice-oriented teaching and research-oriented public universities. Academic training with management focus has been covered much more extensively in the US, until in the 1980s the first private uni- versities were established in Germany. Initially, these universities covered merely a niche, which they now have clearly left by approaching the 10% mark of enrolled students in Germany. They have established themselves as a central component of the German post-secondary education system. Many global companies rely on executives, who have enjoyed a post-secondary education designed to train upcoming talents in management. This is why I have observed from the start and with great interest the development of the private univer- sity segment in Germany. A number of companies have identified the potential of demand-oriented post-secondary education, delivering competencies to students, rather than knowledge alone. With close linkages to companies, internships and the network of private universities, graduates often are hired by companies prior to graduation or shortly after. Companies also support pri- vate universities by sponsoring, buying shares or complete universities, or by setting up VIII Foreword II their own university with newest digital learning technology. Consequently, the sector has enjoyed strong and sustainable growth for years. The convincing success of graduates, who are perfectly prepared for the professional world, impressively underlines the factuality of this book’s title “Management Careers Made in Germany.” The three, internationally renowned authors have produced an urgently needed guide book. They provide essential criteria to find your way through the abundance of options of German universities, with quality criteria as well as your own goals in mind. The careful reader will enjoy valuable practical hints, which include expert knowledge in teaching, the professional world and alumni of private universities. A fact-based discourse on the pros and cons of private post-secondary education in Germany will help you to decide whether a management career made in Germany is right for you. The book never loses sight of the economy and the business world of the future. There- fore, “industry 4.0” is covered as well as the “internet of things” in an increasingly online world. The authors outline opportunities for a responsible utilisation of digital teaching and research for augmented education and business. Having worked for approximately 20 years in Canada taught me that academic edu- cation is pivotal for the country’s future prospects. It is the best way to reduce the dependence on natural resources and its trade of raw materials with other countries. This is one of the reasons the Canadian government has announced—as part of an internationalisation strategy—an initiative to enhance the number of students at the approximately 124 universities and colleges by 2020 to 450,000. While envisaging this, you should have in mind that students in North America are paying a substan- tially higher tuition fee than anyone would be obliged to pay in Germany. Another interesting aspect of the government’s goal to enlarge the proportion of academics of the Canadian population is the—often praised—immigration policy of the country. It clearly favours applicants with a high academic education. This form of migrant selec- tion saves considerable funds for society on education and at the same time reduces the prevalent shortage of skilled labour in Canada. In late 2018, the German government has started an initiative with a proposal for a new immigration law to facilitate migration of skilled labour to Germany. If the new law turns out to be as effective as the Canadian immigration policy, it could generate equally positive societal and economic effects as in Canada. The new initiative proves that Germany is serious about attracting high potentials from all around the world. The book covers the complete spectrum of the diverse, private tertiary education mar- ket in Germany. The breadth of the education system encompasses exclusive vocational training, practice-oriented bachelor and master programs and classical academic as well as digital post-secondary education. The authors successfully paint a comprehensive picture of the growing and increasingly important private education market in Germany. From a Canadian perspective I might IX Foreword II add that the timing couldn’t be better. In the wake of the CETA (Canada-EU) trade agreement, the interest of Canadian students in a European and German academic education will surely grow. This book is a valuable guide for those Canadian students and anyone else with similar aspirations. Being the very first book of its kind and on the international market at the right time, it will be an invaluable tool for students, parents, professors, entrepreneurs, HR execu- tives, politicians and German diplomats all around the world. You will not want to miss all the well-researched information therein. Hubertus Liebrecht Honorary Consul, Federal Republic of Germany, Calgary, in October 2018 Calgary, Canada XI Acknowledgements This book would not have been possible without our numerous supporters, highly interested in the topic. The many contributions and practical examples provided by involved companies, university presidents, professors, academics, students and alumni from 5 continents gave this book a new dimension of international authenticity and give our readers a verifiable account of experiences with education made in Germany. We sincerely thank all our supporters for their testimonials and contributions. We thank Larissa A. S. Hansen for her support with some of the graphics and Clara M. Sellen for her treasured input. Matthias Brandt’s valuable contributions to recent culi- nary developments in Germany are greatly appreciated. We are indebted to Hubertus Liebrecht, Honorary Consul of the Federal Republic of Germany in Calgary (Canada), for presenting the international perspective on the subject in Foreword II. Foreword I of the Prime Minister of the German Free State of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer, provides the perfect introduction to the topic, which we especially value.