Declining student enrollment numbers in physics

Today, I had a look into the most recent statistics about physics undergraduate and graduate student enrollment numbers at German universities. Typically, these statistics are published each year in the "Physik Journal", which is a monthly magazine published by the German Physical Society (DPG, Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft). You can find the current statistics here.

Hiring teaching assistants for an introductory physics class

After interviewing a few candidates for teaching assistant (TA) positions within the framework of our introductory experimental physics (classical mechanics and thermodynamics) class for freshmen this week, I have had some new thoughts on teaching and learning physics in higher education, especially with regard to TAs and their significance. In the following, I will discuss some of these thoughts.