On this page we provide some statistics regarding the diploma and doctorate certificates issued at the university. Surprisingly, not all such data are available in digital form. We therefore relied on various sources. While the information about issued diploma certificates can be regarded as accurate, the information about issued doctorate certificates in Geophysics is less reliable and had to be extracted by hand from printed lists stored in the Department of Physics. The statistical data are less reliable for the early years of recording. Nevertheless, the data provide some interesting insight how Geophysics in general has developed over the years.
Further information regarding diploma certificates issued for other courses than Geophysics can be found here. Data related to the number of students starting a Geophysics course per academic year can be found here.
Let us start with a general overview of the total number of diploma certificates that have been issued at the university in each academic year:
As opposed to quite a few other universities, in Karlsruhe the Geophysical Institute is part of the Department of Physics. The course in Geophysics has always focused on a strong education in Physics and Mathematics. Successfully passing the intermediate examination (Vordiplom) in Physics, Geophysics, or Meteorology allows students to continue in any of the three courses. Here is a summary of diploma certificates issued at the Department of Physics over the same time period:
Around year 2000, there is a huge decline in the number of students who finished their diploma at the Department of Physics. Finally, here is a detailed view of the diploma certificates issued for students of Geophysics at the University of Karlsruhe:
A peak of the number of Geophysics diploma certificates issued at the university appeared in the academic year 92/93 when 21 such certificates were handed over to Geophysics students. A similar number of Geophysics diploma certificates, namely 20, was issued in the academic year 95/96. The numbers have dropped significantly since the mid of the '90ies. However, in the last couple of years they have stabilised at about 6 Geophysics diploma certificates (on average) issued per academic year. A recent low point can be observed in year 05/06 when only 3 Geophysics diploma certificates were issued.
Unfortunately, the numbers for students starting a course in Geophysics per academic year aren't fully available. However, there's usually a significant decline in the number of Geophysics students already in the first two years. There are also quite a few students starting in Geophysics who continue in the Physics course after the intermediate examination (Vordiplom). Some students also change university after the intermediate examination. Here is a graph showing the number of students who enrolled in a Geophysics course:
As can be seen, statistical data are only available from the mid '90ies onwards. Since the year 2000, the number of students enrolling in a Geophysics course has steadily increased (on average). 27 students have started a BSc course in Geophysics in 09/10 (not shown here) which suggests that the upward trend continues. The following chart shows a comparison of the number of beginners and the number of diploma certificates issued per academic year.
Usually, the number of beginners per academic year translates (with some loss along the way, of course) into the number of Geophysics diploma certificates issued a couple of years later (typically 5 to 6 years). The upward trend in the number of students starting a course in Geophysics suggests that the number of BSc and MSc certificates issued in the coming years will also increase. It should perhaps be mentioned at this point that the diploma course had to be split into a BSc and a subsequent MSc course. The 18 beginners in 08/09 (see chart above) and the 27 beginners in 09/10 (not shown) have no longer enrolled in a diploma course but a BSc Geophysics course instead.
Now here is a graph showing the number of doctorate certificates related to Geophysics issued at the Department of Physics. As mentioned in the beginning, these numbers are less reliable than the numbers for diploma certificates.
As opposed to the number of diploma certificates, there is no steep decline visible in the number of doctorate certificates issued at the Department of Physics. However, statistics with small numbers is always somewhat difficult. One reason for this observation is certainly related to the international projects (like the SFB 461, the World Stress Map project, or the Wave Inversion Technology consortium) which are (or were) hosted at the Geophysical Institute and help to finance PhD students.
The graph above also shows that obviously the majority of doctorate certificates is issued for male PhD students:
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© 2009 Ulrich Herter und Daniel Armbruster