Cooperation between Business and Academia in Germany - A Critical Analysis of New Trends in Designing Integrated Study Programs Based on E-learning

The university system in Germany is currently undergoing profound changes. In order to strengthen their competitive position, private universities of applied sciences are increasingly offering integrated study programs which combine profound academic education with practical on-the-job training in a company. Private businesses highly appreciate these dual-systems of studies as they meet their demand for well-qualified, experienced junior staff. Some companies strive to build up close relationships with academic institutions in order to influence and shape the design of study programs at least to a certain degree. In the course of this development, opportunities are discussed to move the places where students are doing their studies away from the university campus to the students' workplace in the company. Study programs following this idea can only be implemented by making use of a broad range of e-learning tools being available. E-learning makes it possible to transfer academic education into a virtual context, e.g. by providing access to virtual seminars via Live-E-learning at the workplace. E-learning lectures are integrated into the normal working day of the student - reducing the time a student is absent from the workplace. The regular and systematic change between periods of academic education at the university and periods of practical work in the company - which has been typical for study programs following the dual-system - is giving way to a completely new form of business-integrating university studies. This article is going to discuss different issues of this development. As an example, a study program which has been designed in close cooperation between a large German corporation in the telecommunication industry and a German university of applied sciences will be described. Based on this example, advantages and disadvantages for all parties involved will be analyzed.