Did the Bologna Process contribute to improving international students’ success rates in Germany’s HEIs? Twenty years of success rates in Germany: how the Bologna Process impacts on the success rates of International and German students.

Abstract

Low success rates are a thorn in the side of any Higher Education Institute (HEI). With increasing aspirations of attracting international students to Germany (HRK 2020), the international students’ success rates are worthy of a review. For it reflects on how internationalisation processes, such as the Bologna Process, impact on success rates and whether the changing structures attract international students. We used the German administrative data, covering twenty years, to create this cross-cohort analysis of student success rates. By creating a common finishing point-in-time, the combined success rates of diplom and bachelor students in mechanical engineering show that the synchronised success rates for the increasing number of international students are not just comparable, but better than those of the German students.