The case of Germany: a report on the status of international degrees and credit point systems

Describes the new trends in German library and information science (LIS) education and the status of the international degrees in Germany, referring to changes to the Framework Act of 1998, which enabled the institutions of higher education to award Bachelor’s degree on completion of undergraduate study courses and Master’s degree on completion of postgraduate study courses. Describes the introduction of credit point systems, the shift from a system based on the number of lecture hours to a credit system based on the number of hours of student workload. In Germany different credit point systems exist. This paper focuses on the most important model of credit point systems used by the German LIS faculties. Finally the special problems in Germany with the change from the diploma to the Bachelor and Master are mentioned.