All about studying and teaching

More than 4,500 students at the faculty
In the winter semester 2018/ 2019, 4,507 students are studying at the Faculty of Business and Economics - including 510 international students. A total of 31,654 young people are enrolled at the university in the winter semester 2018/ 2019.

At the start of lectures on 15 October, the faculty welcomed a total of 859 first-year students (bachelor: 572; master: 287). In the summer semester 2018, 423 students took up their studies in economics (bachelor: 201; master: 222). 958 graduates left the faculty in 2018 with a bachelor’s or master's degree (bachelor's: 582; master's: 376), and 47 research assistants successfully completed their doctorates.

From data literacy to mobile apps to competence orientation in the university education of students of business education - new teaching projects
The University of Göttingen received € 250,000 for a project to promote the data competence of its students. The project entitled "Daten Lesen Lernen” [learning to read data] was one of the three winners of the "Data Literacy Education" competition organised by the Stifterverband (donors’ association) and the Heinz Nixdorf Foundation. Data literacy is the ability to collect, analyse and consciously deal with data. Prof. Thomas Kneib, holder of the Chair of Statistics and spokesman of the Centre for Statistics, was responsible for the proposal. An interactive course and accompanying tutorials are designed to introduce students of the humanities and social sciences in particular to programming languages and statistics in a targeted manner.

A project of the Faculty of Business and Economics is also being funded within the scope of the competition "Quality plus - Programme for the Development of Tomorrow's Studies" of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture. The faculty is going to make its bachelor’s programme in business administration more international with the help of digital teaching formats by incorporating courses on international management and intercultural competence in the curriculum. The curriculum will also be better aligned with the master’s programme "Global Business". In the master’s programme, the faculty also strengthens its focus on the Asian/Pacific region.
Scholars at the Chair of Application Systems and E-Business in particular are researching the use of mobile apps in lectures and seminars. Henrik Wesseloh and two students of business informatics presented the mobile, gamified learning application "ProFight" at the "Day of Teaching" organised by the University on 7 November. The app is to be used in large lectures, for example, where it promotes interaction with students. In the context of the lecture, students can use the app to playfully answer questions about the learning content in the form of quizzes and receive individual feedback. Teachers, on the other hand, can use statistics to determine the current state of knowledge in the lecture hall.

Dr Sebastian Hobert would like to provide an additional support service for students in the form of an app. The app should function like a chatbot and automatically answer individual questions of students about the content of (large) seminars and lectures. The app thus assumes the role of an artificial tutor. Hobert is conducting his project "Interactive Learning on Demand - Artificial Intelligence as a Tutor in Large Events" together with Florian Berens, research assistant at the Chair of Quantitative Methods and Statistics at the Faculty of Social Sciences. The Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft (donors' association for the promotion of education, science and humanities in Germany) and the foundation DATEV Stiftung Zukunft are also supporting the project as part of the "Fellowships for Innovations in Higher Education" programme with a tandem fellowship of 30,000 euros.

In June, students in the master's programme in business education conducted a joint business simulation game with pupils from the Arnoldi School and the BBS 1 Northeim as part of their didactic training. The students created all materials and instruction modules of the competition independently. They accompanied the pupils in the preparation of their business idea and business plan as well as in their economic decisions. This enabled them to apply the didactic knowledge they had built up in complex, practice-oriented situations and to acquire or further develop the essential skills of a teacher.

Graduates of the faculty satisfied with their jobs and studies
The University of Göttingen regularly polls its graduates about their experiences when starting a career. Former students of the Faculty of Business and Economics are very satisfied with their professional situation. A total of 69.5 percent of the university graduates surveyed stated that they were currently in paid employment. Their average monthly income is between 3,000 and 4,000 euros, with the proportion of graduates in the higher salary groups of 4,000 euros up being 21.2 percent higher among master's graduates than among bachelor's graduates (4.8 percent). A total of 1,162 former students from throughout the university took part in the survey. The response rate was 37.44 percent. A total of 547 graduates were contacted at the faculty, 174 of whom completed the questionnaire. A net response rate of 34.87 percent was achieved.

Internationalization: new co-operations and partnerships with international universities
The Faculty of Business and Economics is continuously expanding its network of renowned, international partner universities, thereby creating attractive opportunities for its students to spend time abroad. In addition to more than 60 European partner universities (ERASMUS), the faculty cooperates with around 23 partner universities in 16 countries worldwide. New additions this year include the Universidad Torcuato di Tella in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana in Mexico City, Mexico, and the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, in Ireland.

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) also supports the two double degree programmes with universities in Florence and Stellenbosch in the field of economics. From 2018 to 2022, funding of around 88,600 euros (Florence) and up to 200,000 euros (Stellenbosch) will be available. These funds are used to finance scholarships for Göttingen students of the Master's programme in Development Economics for study visits to partner universities. In addition, the exchange of lecturers is also promoted within the framework of short-term guest lectureships.

The DAAD also supports cooperation between development economists in Göttingen and economists from the Colombian university EAFIT in Medellín, a partner university of the faculty. They want to establish a new focus in the field of sustainable agricultural development within the framework of the master's programme "Applied Economics" at the Colombian University. Prof. Marcela Ibañez Diaz, Ph.D., Chair of Development Economics, has raised the funding. In addition to the development of a teaching programme with concrete courses, the cooperation also includes the exchange of students and teachers. Scientific workshops are also to be organised for mutual exchange.