© Michael Ihle / Universität Bremen
Starting Your Degree Well
The University of Bremen supports its students greatly when they start to study. This dedication is visible in the current CHE ranking.
Those who start their degrees at the University of Bremen are not alone. There are numerous preliminary classes, seminars, tutorials, and individual consultation possibilities so that the transfer from school to university is easy. In the current university ranking by the Centre for Higher Education development (CHE), the majority of the assessed university subjects take top spots in this area.
In terms of the category for support for degree starts, four degree courses from the University of Bremen took the top spots: Management and Electrical Engineering, Management and Production Engineering, Business Studies, and Information Systems and Management. Moreover, the Management and Production Engineering degree course was also part of three top groups of the CHE student survey: the assessment of the class offer, the degree organization, and the career orientation offers. The Information Systems and Management degree course got the best possible mark in the student survey for its IT infrastructure.
How Does the University Provide Support?
“The university has invested a great deal of money into the support programs for degree starts in the past years,” says vice president academic, Professor Thomas Hoffmeister. The university also applies differentiated quality management in the fields of teaching and studies. Regularly, there is so-called student monitoring, where university staff ask students how they are getting on with their subject. The results are always passed on to the faculties, who can then further develop offers and measures for the support of their students.
© Michael Ihle / Universität Bremen
Preliminary Classes in Accounting or Programming
What is the degree course support like? We posed this question to several of the courses that did well in the CHE ranking. “Even before the degree begins, we offer our Business Studies students the opportunity to complete a one-week accounting course,” explains the dean of the Faculty of Business Studies & Economics, Professor Jochen Zimmermann. In said week, the students get to know the day-to-day life at the university. After a morning lecture in the big lecture hall, what they have learnt is practiced in afternoon tutorials. Tutorials are classes that are held by their peers and where the lecture contents are discussed in a small group. “This mixture of big and small groups, as well as young and more experienced students has proven to be very effective in terms of orientation,” according to Zimmermann. Preliminary courses in mathematics and programming and special freshman tutorials are available for the Information Systems and Management degree. Similar offers with other contents and points of focus are also offered by the Management and Electrical Engineering degree program. “We find intense support of our students right from the beginning extremely important,” says the dean for students, Professor Steffen Paul.
The Management and Production Engineering degree course also marked well in the CHE ranking. What does the degree course offer? “We offer a mixture of core, compulsory elective, and elective classes so that the students can create their timetables in accordance with their own interests,” says the dean for students, Professor Maren Petersen. “Our study center works closely together with the student representatives Together, they offer students individual consultation opportunities concerning their degree.” Thanks to the STEM tutorials in the first year, there is immense support for students from students during the degree orientation phase.
© Michael Ihle / Universität Bremen
The Fall O-Week Offers Orientation for Everyone
The so-called o-week – the orientation week – takes place for freshmen in the fall. Students receive a great deal of information and support opportunities, for example from the Studierwerkstatt where you can receive help with how to write term papers or how to prepare and hold presentations. The study centers are an important point of contact for students in all faculties. There they can clarify any issues they have with planning their studies and the relevant examination regulations.
Everything Is Different Thanks to Corona
The coronavirus has shaken things up. Students and teaching staff now need to network and communicate digitally as the university is in emergency operation mode and the buildings are closed. However, one thing is clear: During these times, everything is being done so that the students receive the best possible supervision and so that their questions are answered.
About the CHE Ranking
The CHE ranking examines more than 300 universities and universities of applied sciences throughout Germany. It collates information on a total of 30 subjects and each subject is reevaluated every three years. Many prospective and current students take careful note of the CHE ranking. The subject fields of business studies, institutional economics, economics, information systems and management, engineering and management, economic law, social work, law, and for the first time ever – economic psychology – were assessed this year. The weekly newspaper DIE ZEIT published the entire ranking results in the ZEIT study guide for 2019/20 and on the ZEIT CAMPUS ONLINE website.
More information
Uni Bremen Start Portal (in German!)
CHE Ranking (in German!)
