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Germany has reformed its law on professional education in order to increase competitiveness and attractiveness of the sector. A degree of a professional education pathway may now be called “Bachelor Professional”, “Master Professional” or “geprüfter Berufsspezialist” (certified professional specialist). The changes aim to provide better international comparability and shall underline the equal value of professional education with an academic education at university. The government also hopes that, by being internationally understandable, the new terms will help to foster mobility of young professionals.
The German Rectors’ Conference (Hochschulrektorenkonferenz) strongly criticises the use of the terms “Bachelor” and “Master” in a non-academic context. They claim that the introduction of the new terms is not necessary and will lead to confusion as well as endanger the already achieved goals of the Bologna Process. Other stakeholders from universities support the opinion of the Rectors’ Conference.