Cooperative Education in the Higher Education System and Big Five Personality Traits in Germany

Students in psychology are often surveyed for personality. Empirical results show relevance of this topic, because personality influences academic success. In contrast, we know much less about the personality of students of cooperative education. So, we collected data from 5,863 students at Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University in August 2016. Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) indicated that gender (partial n[superscript 2] = 0.06), academic field (partial n[superscript 2] = 0.01) and covariate university entrance scores (partial n[superscript 2] = 0.05) have an effect on Big Five personality traits controlling age and social class. The results can be used for selecting students in cooperative education for academic fields and compare them with other types of study.