Teaching what they need instead of teaching what we like - the new software engineering curriculum at the University of Stuttgart

Abstract At the University of Stuttgart, a new curriculum called Software Engineering was launched in October 1996. It is offered by the Department of Informatics, and supplements the standard informatics curriculum started in 1970. The curriculum is new not only for the University of Stuttgart, but for all German-speaking universities. This article first provides some background information about German universities in general. After this, the reasons for starting a new curriculum, its goals and its limitations are discussed. Finally, the current state and future steps are outlined.