Senior educational programs for compensating future student decline in German universities

Abstract

Most industrialized countries are currently facing a shrinking and aging of the population. Germany's population is expected to fall from about 82.4 million people to between 69 and 74 million people in 2050. Simultaneously, the average age of the population is increasing. In particular, the coming years in Eastern Germany will be characterized by a strong decline in the number of young people and a significant increase in the number of elderly. However, demographic change does not automatically imply negative consequences but also creates room for opportunities. In this chapter, we explore opportunities to enlarge the purpose of the educational silver market by an economic component due to two developments: (i) current and upcoming generations of seniors increasingly spend their spare time studying intellectual and cultural subjects, and (ii) traditional universities suffer from a low number of students. We make considerations regarding incentives to include more people aged 65 and over in educational issues, and thus to create a win-win situation for third agers and institutions of higher education. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.