After Talking About Lazy Students - Basel Lecturer Under Criticism

– Basel lecturer in criticism

In one interview, historian Andrea Franc did not leave the history of good hair to the students. Now students and their employers are struggling.

Published: 09/06/2022, 09:13

Andrea Franc causes a sensation with her claims.

Photo: University of Basel

Private lecturer Andrea Franc caused a blush in German-speaking countries. In an interview with the NZZ, she recently torn apart history students from Basel and Lucerne. They are lazy, they are a burden to society or they would squander their legacy and therefore would not work, “burn their way through college” – and “shoot gnomes” on their cell phones during courses. What she meant by the latter must remain open. We have checked the rest of the claims that you can find here.

The University of Basel was also dissatisfied with the statements by the economic historian. In an e-mail sent by the history department to students, the head of the department, Jan Rüdiger, explains, reports the SRF. The statements are “speaking very carefully, unfortunately,” writes Rüdiger.

Department leaders see their students as engaged

The statements should not be understood as accusations against the students, but rather as an insult, said Rüdiger SRF. As a preliminary assessment, the university checked how often Andrea Franc lectures in Basel.

Outcome: Franc has taught at the University of Basel twice in the last ten years. “This means that some of Franc’s claims are based on a fragile empirical situation,” says Rüdiger. He himself has a completely different picture of students in Basel. He has lectured in several countries and can therefore compare. In Basel, the involvement and interest of students is very high.

The statements of the University of Basel have no consequences for Franc. As a private lecturer, she is not subject to authorization, but can decide for herself how heavy her workload should be at the university.

Students from Lucerne respond with an open letter

The University of Lucerne has so far refrained from making official statements. This, in turn, upsets the students there. You wrote an open letter to the university management, reports the Luzerner Zeitung.

Franc is said to have little experience teaching at universities. And further: “Only anecdotal, improbable, and sometimes simply erroneous statements are, as one might deduce from the offensive tone, more worthy of a political diatribe than of a scientific discussion.”

Students demand from the university management and the dean of the department of public economics a statement about Franco’s statements. The Faculty of Business and Economics should also show what “added value” learning francs brings to students at the University of Lucerne.

The Dean and Franc should also explain “to what extent Dr. Andrea Franc stands out from the humanities. ” And: Franc should prove his theses empirically. Students are demanding that all of this happen within the next 14 days.