YEAR 2020

The National Educational Panel Study invites all interested researchers to submit proposals for new survey modules in all NEPS starting cohorts. With the first "Call for Modules", the NEPS now opens its survey program to external content. The deadline for sending in a short outline is 30 September 2020.

The Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) announces a personnel change in management. Dr. Robert Polgar is leaving his position as Executive Director of Administration and member of the Board of Directors after six years.

The Joint Science Conference of the Federal Government and the Länder (Gemeinsame Wissenschaftskonferenz, GWK) has today decided to provide funding for the Consortium for the Social, Behavioural, Educational, and Economic Sciences (KonsortSWD), one of nine founding consortiums of the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI).

In cooperation with the Leibniz Institute for Research and Information in Education (DIPF), the German Youth Institute (DJI), the Centre for Higher Education and Science Studies (DZHW), the Sociological Research Institute at the University of Göttingen (SOFI), the German Institute for Adult Education (DIE) and the statistical agencies of the Federal Government and the States (Destatis, StaLä), the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) has completed the 8th National Report on Education in Germany “Bildung in Deutschland 2020“, which was presented on June 23, 2020. A particular concern in the education report is the presentation of trajectories, risk factors, and conditions for success in education, thus providing insights into educational outcomes and returns. The current report increasingly uses longitudinal data from the National Education Panel Study (NEPS), which is based at LIfBi and has been conducted by a nationwide network for around ten years. The following seven results are examples of NEPS findings in the current Education Report.

Ann-Christin Bächmann, LIfBi employee, has been nominated for this year’s Körber Foundation Study Award. In her dissertation entitled “Berufliche Geschlechtersegregation und Geschlechterungleichheiten auf dem deutschen Arbeitsmarkt [Occupational Gender Segregation and Gender Inequality in the German Labor Market]” at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, she examines the unequal distribution of occupational patterns among women and men in Germany and their effects. Her objective: to identify starting points for creating more gender equality in the business world.

Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt, Director of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi) and Chair of Longitudinal Educational Research at the University of Bamberg, represents the field of educational research in the new Commission for Pandemic Research of the German Research Foundation (DFG). The aim of the commission, whose inaugural meeting took place on June 15, is to support and connect evidence-driven research in all subjects relevant to the pandemic and to accompany research projects.

On Wikipedia and other knowledge-generating communities, even non-experts can provide information that is not inferior in quality to classic encyclopedias. But what individual and systemic prerequisites are required for this collaborative work? And under what circumstances can knowledge platforms become echo chambers of ideological or even extremist positions? In her guest lecture at LIfBi Lectures, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress gave exciting insights into the current research of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen. 

On Wikipedia and other knowledge-generating communities, even non-experts can provide information that is not inferior in quality to classic encyclopedias. But what individual and systemic prerequisites are required for this collaborative work? And under what circumstances can knowledge platforms become echo chambers of ideological or even extremist positions? In her guest lecture at LIfBi Lectures, Prof. Dr. Ulrike Cress gave exciting insights into the current research of the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien (IWM) in Tübingen. 

As part of the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS)—the largest long-term study on education in Germany—all participants are currently being surveyed concerning the corona pandemic. In the current and all upcoming surveys, the effects of the corona pandemic on everyday school, work, and family life will be examined. As a result, we will be able to research not only retrospective differences in dealing with the crisis but also long-term consequences for educational biographies in Germany.

Prof. Dr. Cordula Artelt, Director of the Leibniz Institute for Educational Trajectories (LIfBi), congratulates Prof. Dr. Kai Fischbach on his election as new President of the University of Bamberg.