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The refugee influx in the European context has challenged national systems and individual higher education institutions to develop and iterate solutions for prospective and, increasingly, enrolled university students. In the German setting, enormous federal investment has supported a robust response, though one which in several aspects lacks cohesion. This paper discusses possible implications of refugee student enrolment in German universities, and offers recommendations for policy initiatives in the same context. Key proposals include: revisiting the numerus clausus admissions system; expanding the existing student services model; emphasizing an early focus on subject-specific language proficiency (Fachsprache); emergency funds for small student expenses; the development of internships for refugee students; and support for student and staff collaboration and information sharing at both the state and federal levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Metacomprehension as reflected in judgements of one's learning is crucial for self-regulated study, yet their accuracy is often low. We investigated text difficulty as a constraint on metacomprehension accuracy in text learning. A total of 235 participants studied a 10-section expository text and afterwards took a knowledge test. They made judgements of learning after each section. Sections were of high, medium or low difficulty; we manipulated between participants the order of difficulty levels across sections. In blocked orders, texts in each block (sections 1-4; sections 5-6; sections 7-10) were of the same difficulty level. In mixed orders, difficulty varied throughout the learning unit either from easy to difficult or from difficult to easy. Our general tenet was that orders would trigger different extents of experience-based processing and thus influence metacomprehension accuracy to different degrees. As hypothesized, accuracy was higher for blocked difficulty orders. Late-section judgement magnitude decreased more strongly in the blocked groups. At the same time, late-section judgement accuracy was higher in the blocked group. We discuss implications and limitations of the influence of fluctuations in text difficulty on judgements of learning accuracy together with some avenues for further research. Lay Description What is already known about this topic? Metacomprehension as reflected in judgements of one's learning (JOL) is crucial for effective self-regulated study., JOL accuracy is often low., Text difficulty appears to bias metacomprehension in topically non-coherent series of texts., What this paper adds? This paper establishes text difficulty as a constraint on metacomprehension accuracy in topically coherent texts., This paper explains text difficulty effects as different relative weights of experience-based and theory-based processing, respectively., Implications for practice and/or policy: Taking systematic text difficulty effects into account may help avoid unintended adverse effects of difficulty order on metacomprehension accuracy., Arranging difficulty levels block-wise may enhance experience-based processing and thus judgement accuracy., Additionally, with topically coherent texts, increasing difficulty across texts benefits performance in a later knowledge text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, I analyze how recent calls to internationalize publication behavior affect research practices at an automotive engineering department in Germany. Automotive engineering is a field with traditionally rather scarce publication activity and strong connections to industry. Substantial authority to define suitable research problems and ways of organizing knowledge production on a daily basis was therefore reserved for local academic elites as well as corporate partners. However, as engineers are increasingly expected to prove their performance through publishing in international peer-reviewed journals, the judgment as to what should be considered “interesting” or “robust” research is partly relegated to a gradually globalizing community of academic peers. This generates a variety of tensions with established ways of coordinating epistemic work at the department studied here. For example, the thematic interests of journals tend to exert a disruptive centrifugal pull in the context of an otherwise highly modular research culture, and possibilities to publish in international venues are unequally distributed across individual research projects. But while department members agree that there is a lack of fit between current practices and new expectations towards their publishing behavior, their opinions about the conclusions that should be drawn differ significantly. Some researchers argue that profound organizational changes are necessary to foster the academic rigor of German engineering research. Others believe that evaluation criteria should simply be adapted. This situation is arguably characteristic for research areas with a traditionally strong orientation to local stakeholders, and it suggests a need for more deliberative, participatory approaches to research evaluation in such fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]