The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany: Education in Germany 2010 Gesamtherstellung und Verlag, Germany, 2010. ISBN 9783 7639 19925. Pages: 352

Published every two years, this publication presents a major empirical overview of the entire German education system. Each report provides indicator-based information about the general conditions, features, results and output of education processes. The reports are compiled by a group of independent experts and analyse the entire structure of the education system from early childhood education and school education to vocational training, higher education and adult education. 

The 2010 edition of the report focuses on perspectives of the education sector under the influence of demographic change. In brief, the results of the report underline the need for further improvement of the dynamic modernisation of the educational system.

The findings of Education in Germany 2010 support the trends identified in previous reports. For the higher education sector, this means that the number of students who qualified for higher education continued to grow. Furthermore, the quota of first-year students (43 percent in 2009) and the number of alumni rose compared to previous years and the percentage of GDP spent on education rose from 6.1 percent (EUR 147.8 billion in 2007) to 6.2 percent (EUR 155 billion in 2008).

Demographic change poses new challenges to the German economy and society, and the educational system must contribute substantially to the efforts to respond to these developments. Notably, an aging society calls for increased occupational and professional training to ensure productivity, and non-occupational further training is important for ensuring the participation of the elderly population in society.

Bildungsbericht