PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES ATTRACT ALMOST ONE IN TEN STUDENTS

Erfurt, 2 July 2020 - Germany's private universities are on a growth path: as a recent study by the Stifterverband shows, one in ten first-semester students now chooses a private provider. A total of 244,000 students are now studying at German private universities such as the IU - that is twice as many as in 2010 and 8.5 percent of all students.

PART-TIME STUDY MODELS OF PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES PARTICULARLY POPULAR

Private universities are particularly popular among part-time students: Here, almost one in two learns at a private university and 41 percent of all who do distance learning. Every third dual student has also chosen a private university. This trend is confirmed by the IU, where more than 30,000 students are currently enrolled in distance or dual study models alone. "The private institutions are so far ahead here mainly because their model focuses on the needs of students and practice partners," says Prof. Dr. Peter Thuy, Rector of IU and Chairman of the Board of the Association of Private Universities. "So we're not taking anything away from state providers, but offering a sensible addition to further open up access to higher education in Germany."

REASONS FOR CHOOSING PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES: PRACTICAL, INNOVATIVE, DIGITAL

According to the study, the decisive factors in choosing a private university are practical relevance and small study classes. Contrary to their reputation, very few private universities are elitist institutions for children from wealthy families. "We can confirm this at IU: Our students choose us especially because of the personal support and career orientation of our programmes," explains Thuy.

According to the Stifterverband, a decisive argument for private universities is also their pioneering role in virtual offerings - be it the digitalisation of study programmes (online offerings), innovative didactic formats (online campus) or the digitalisation of academic infrastructures (digital libraries). This is also confirmed by a recent study by the IU on studying during the corona crisis: From the perspective of 7,000 students, private universities implemented corona-related measures significantly faster than state universities: Every fourth state university and every fifth state university of applied sciences had not yet communicated online measures to maintain study operations in April, but 99 percent of private universities already had.