Promising Response to New English-Taught Programmes at HSBI’s Gütersloh Campus

Gütersloh (hsbi). A recent projection provided by the Chamber of Industry and Commerce’s Fachkräftemonitor (monitoring of skilled labour) estimates the shortage of skilled labour in East Westphalia-Lippe (OWL) to be 44,000 – and counting. While the baby-boomer generation is heading towards retirement, members of the generations marked by lower birth rates enter the professional life. The delta is increasing and it may soon reach six digits. And technical professions are particularly affected. Universities with a focus on engineering thus have a special responsibility, as they educate tomorrow’s professionals and executives. However, they, too, are already struggling with the demographic developments and face a downwards trend in student numbers.

One of HSBI’s strategies to address this challenge is the expansion of its English-taught offers, aiming to recruit qualified applicants from abroad to study at HSBI and to convince them that they should stay in OWL after graduating. “This is an integral part of our International Strategy,” says Prof. Dr. Ulrich Schäfermeier, HSBI’s Vice President International Affairs and Digitalisation. “Companies based in OWL have a much stronger international network than those in other regions of Germany. With their cooperation and for their benefit, we want to attract and educate talented young people from abroad – including those that do not speak German yet. This in turn contributes to more internationality at HSBI, which also benefits our domestic students and our institution as a whole.”

Programmes instantly attract 139 applicants from abroad

It is still a fairly fresh development, but those responsible at HSBI’s Gütersloh Campus have made a big step forwards in the ongoing winter semester 2024/25. Three new English-taught programmes are being offered: First of all, the full-time bachelor’s degree programme in Industrial Engineering. Then there is the work-integrated version of the same programme. In this version, the students alternately study at HSBI for twelve weeks and then apply what they have learned to their job at a partner company for eleven weeks, for which they also receive a salary. What is more, anyone who starts full-time studies can switch to the work-integrated model seamlessly at any time – speed dating events with company representatives are intended to create incentives here. The third English-taught programme starting at Gütersloh Campus in the winter semester is the Research Master in Data Science. Here, the students – closely supervised by experienced researchers – work on their own research projects throughout the entire course of their studies and thus lay the foundation for a career in industry, research or in their own start-up. The response to the new offer was extremely promising and boosted student numbers at Gütersloh Campus, which had previously stagnated at around 500 students: a total of 139 prospects applied for the new degree programme, 96 of them for the full-time bachelor’s degree and 43 for the master’s degree (numbers as of 2 Sep 2024). The admission and enrolment procedures are still ongoing, but these numbers indicate that prospective students welcome the new offers.

Although the new English-taught programmes’ target group includes German applicants, almost all applications came from abroad, with a diverse mix of nationalities – the largest numbers coming from Türkiye, India and Bangladesh. Egypt and Pakistan, too, ranked high on the list. In addition, the university received applications from countries it had never seen any interest from, including Mauritius, Myanmar, Trinidad and Tobago and South Africa. The enrolment period is not over yet. But for Prof. Dr. Andrea Kaimann, Vice Dean for Gütersloh Campus at the Faculty of Engineering and Mathematics, it is clear that as many people as possible that are eligible for admission should be able to find out what makes Gütersloh attractive: “Our two locations in the Flöttmann building and at ‘Gleis 13’ are seeing a wonderful development with very well equipped seminar rooms and laboratories. We have a young dynamic team of 16 professors, three lecturers for special assignments and a number of academic staff. There is a diverse business landscape around Gütersloh with small and medium-sized enterprises and multinational corporations, which offer practical insights and hands-on cooperation.”

The team of the International Office paves the way, the professors develop the curriculum

A great deal of organisation and support was necessary for the new international students to benefit from all this: this was where the International Office was needed. Weronika Henryka Ludwig, Emily Singh Chatrath and their colleagues dealt with admission requirements, visas, residence permits and the search for accommodation. So far, all enrolled students received an accommodation offer! In addition, the International Office developed a welcome programme that will introduce the new arrivals to the country and people and the rules of studying at HSBI. The mandatory German classes are an essential component, too. Although the courses are taught in English, the students are to learn the local language in several intensive courses – an important requirement for their studies to be successful from a social perspective and for their chances to enter the German labour market.

Teaching, too, required many preparations: Prof. Dr. Mariam Dopslaf directs the two new English-taught bachelor’s programmes. She will share the teaching duties with Prof. Dr. Pascal Reusch, Dr. Rebecca van den Bongard and Dr. Lisa Teich. For the concept design of the programme, the team could draw on the experiences gained by Bielefeld School of Business and its English-taught programmes as well as its own faculty’s collaborations with universities in Belgium, Finland, Colombia and Mexico. “I am extremely grateful for my colleagues’ help and their willingness to teach in English,” says Dopslaf. A positive side effect: its English-taught offers make HSBI even more attractive for exchange students from abroad, which in turn strengthens international cooperation and generates new contacts.

A good environment and a successful start: Gütersloh Campus goes international

Prof. Dr. Christian Schwede directs the Research Master’s programme. He puts emphasis on the goal of training excellent specialists with an international background and scientific reputation. Schwede’s experience with the German-taught version of the Research Master’s at HSBI showed that a majority of graduates start a doctorate in applied research after completing their studies.

He also wants to offer his students a double degree: from the summer semester 2025 onwards, graduates will be able to take a master’s degree in Industrial Engineering with a focus on Data Science at Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas in Bogotá, Colombia, alongside their master’s degree at HSBI. As if that were not enough, the team at Gütersloh Campus are already preparing the start of two new bachelor’s programmes in Mechatronics and Automation in the winter semester 2025/26.

Ulrich Schäfermeier concludes: “Gütersloh Campus’s success story is unique. The city, the district, the companies, pro Wirtschaft GT and many other actors are collaborating closely with HSBI with a great deal of openness to innovative solutions aiming to meet the challenges posed by demographic change and globalisation.” (lk)

For more photographic material, please contact presse@hsbi.de.