The Effect of the Bologna Process on the Duration of Studies

This paper evaluates the effect of replacing traditional German five-year degrees with three-year bachelor programs on the duration until graduation and dropping out of university. Using an extensive dataset containing detailed administrative data on more than 9000 students, competing risks models are estimated. The results reveal that the Bologna process reduced the duration until graduation in absolute and relative terms, indicating that one of the reform´s main objectives was achieved. In addition, there is a favorable impact of being enrolled in a bachelor program on the probability of dropping out of university for students enrolled at the faculty of humanities. However, the results concerning university drop out are less conclusive for the other faculties

Class Attendance and University Performance

Using survey data collected at Göttingen University, Germany, this paper evaluates the effect of attending the lecture and/or tutorial on the grade achieved in two basic courses in business administration and economics. The analysis shows that going to class has no significant impact on student performance in most specifications. Although the identification of a causal effect may not be possible with the data at hand, the results suggest that, in the given framework, attending class and studying on one´s own may be substitutes

'A' is the Aim?

This paper analyzes professors' effect from a fundamental first-year course in Economics on students' later performance in follow-on courses with a special attention given to the problem of self-selection bias of students toward certain professors. Based on an extensive dataset consisting of administrative data on more than 2, 900 students from the university of Göttingen, an instrumental variable (IV) strategy is used. The obtained results indicate that professors have powerful effects on students' achievement. However, the sign of this effect is ambiguous, and depends on the mathematical rigor of the course and the examination style