Project Based Learning in Partnership Industry and University

The cooperative state university (DHBW) Stuttgart is a special type of university where the students’ education is given not only in the university. Instead, the students have a contract with an industrial company - It is similar to vocational training on an academic level. The concept is “earn while you learn” – the students don’t need to bother with extra jobs but spend their non-university time in the companies where they are trained. The system is like a trainee program plus academic education. The students get paid by their companies through the 3 years while the academic part is independent of the companies and financed by the state. Students practice project based learning both in their practice phases and at the university. In this talk, some examples for such projects in the theory phase will be given, taken from the Finite Element lectures.