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The Local Europe reports

One of Germany's top universities wants to ditch German and switch almost all of its master's programmes to English in the next six years, prompting fears that the academic standing of the German language is under serious threat.

Munich's Technical University (TU), one of the highest ranked in Germany, already uses English in 30 of its 99 master's courses. Now the board of trustees has followed a recommendation by the university's president, Wolfgang Herrmann, to switch to English for most other master's modules by 2020.

"English is the lingua franca in academia and of the economy," Herrmann told the Suddeutsche Zeitung on Wednesday. He said it was important to prepare students for a professional life in which they would be expected to speak English.

Herrmann also said he wanted to send a "strong signal" that would allow TU to compete for the brightest master's students globally.

A spokesman for the university told The Local the TU did not have a target for the number of modules it would offer in English. He added the plans were based on demands from students.
"We want to expand our offers in English. This will not affect all modules," the spokesman said.
The university declined to give further details.

Students sceptical

But Sebastian Biermann, chair of TU's student parliament, disputed that students had called for English across the board.
"This came from the university's management, not from students or the university's departments," he told The Local.

While Biermann said student representatives were open to more English, "generally switching all master's degrees to English is something we view rather critically".
Biermann said the reform made sense for some departments like computer sciences, where English is already common. It was not the right solution for courses like constructional engineering, he said, where textbooks and legal requirements were mostly in German.

Switching TU master's programmes to English also requires fluency among academic and administrative staff and more language support for students. Biermann said students doubted this could be achieved by 2020.