Who drives a BMW, has a silver watch and only goes shopping at Rewe?
A dual student!
That's a nasty cliché, but my roommate, who is studying dual studies, actually has a fellow student like that.
For status reasons, he drives the almost kilometer between his apartment and the library by car.
But do not worry, this should not be a copy of the more than 100,000 dual students in the more than 1,500 dual study programs in Germany.
People are different, it's no secret.
My roommate rides a bike and stays away from expensive things, even though he could definitely afford something.
In the shared kitchen we always joke about it and glorify the dual university as a place where milk and honey flow.
Freedom to think falls by the wayside
The core of a joke is knowing that it is actually different. Of course, dual students do not get their training salaries of up to 1,800 euros for free. My roommate, for example, has the biggest dark circles under the eyes of all of us, which is no wonder with around 25 hours of lectures per week, plus preparation and follow-up work, plus six exams per theory phase. Only on Saturdays does he allow himself half a day off to watch football. If the material of a semester is squeezed into half a semester, there is no other way.
In addition to the psychological balance, something else falls by the wayside: the freedom to think.
If the workload is hard to cope with, you have to be content with scratching the surface.
Quantity comes before quality, the course becomes a sprint.
It is not possible to dig deeper into a topic.
Keeping your own Porsche firmly in view
It is not, however, that this is not intended.
My roommate should also write in-depth homework in his dual engineering degree.
He recently turned his room into a laboratory, set up electrical equipment and bubbled with ideas.
But it didn't last long.
Because he is chronically lacking in time, he finally had to punch some results quickly into the keyboard.
It's efficient, but it has little to do with academic work.
My roommate is dissatisfied with his studies.
He complains that he is not even learning to think “out of the box”, instead he is being trimmed towards a career in well-trodden paths.
Many fellow students would have put on blinkers, their own Porsche firmly in view.
In principle, anyone can drive the car they want, but the requirements become a problem when the underlying type of education is glorified into the brave new world of study.
I myself have often been asked why I am not doing a dual course of study so as not to be a burden for anyone.
This is the only way to shape progress
The idea of studying is a utopia and we should be proud of it. You take young people, put them in an academy, give them time and resources to learn what suits their talents, and let them be critical in the process. Only when you discover yourself in thought do you know who you are. Tomorrow's society is created at the academy, and those who leave their shelter can influence the community with their fresh ideas.
How we shape our university landscape will determine our future.
It is worth taking a lot of money into your hand.
In the investment sector, one would speak of venture capital: I invest in a lot of young people, everyone gives their best and in the end a few give me an enormous return.
This is the only way to shape progress.
But if we take the students time and space to think and trim them for a one-sided career so that they can study as quickly and cheaply as possible, then that won't work.
The company where my roommate works shows me how to work on one's own insignificance.
In his practical phase, he copies and archives all kinds of things there, he checks tables of numbers or cuts hundreds of pieces of paper to size.
He doesn't have to make coffee, there are fully automatic machines for that.
Young people also need time and appreciation
Of course, such tasks are also important, but firstly they have nothing to do with his studies, so the promise of the dual study to combine practice and teaching is not fulfilled.
Second, the company burns brave spirits when it educates young people to serve.
My roommate may be unlucky with his company, but as long as such cases exist, it indicates a structural problem.
Young people need to be recognized as a resource to invest in because it pays off in the long term, not because they generate profit in the short term.
Anything else would not be fair.
My roommate could study full time, but he doesn't.
He wants to learn and work, he would rather help shape society today than tomorrow.
For this he deserves respect, like so many of his fellow students.
However, respect is not expressed in training that enables students to obtain a Bachelor of Copy, but in structures that encourage young people to be courageous and stubborn.
The dual study program is basically a good idea, but young people need not only money, but also time and appreciation.
In any case, cutting out slips of paper and learning at Porsche speed is not a viable apprenticeship.
For his master's degree, my roommate would like to study at a full-time university.
He imagines studying there like being in a family carriage: things are moving forward, but at a safe pace!