Level-Up Study
How do you decide — and what role do your parents play?
The nationwide Level-Up Study accompanies students from Germany's Abitur class of 2027 and at least one parent over 18 months as they navigate educational and career choices.
App available from end of April 2026
We will provide the link to the app here at the end of April.
About the Study
The nationwide Level-Up Study investigates how prospective Abitur students make their educational and career decisions, and what role parents or guardians play in this process.
The transition from school to university or vocational training is a pivotal moment in the lives of young people. The study aims to better understand decision-making processes within families, trace their development over time, and scientifically analyse key influencing factors.
The study is driven by a purely scientific interest in knowledge and does not serve to evaluate individual people, schools, or regions.
Publication and Societal Impact
The study's findings will be evaluated objectively and on a sound scientific basis. They will be published and made accessible to the public. In addition, the insights will be discussed in the context of educational policy and shared with relevant decision-makers, in order to support evidence-based measures to strengthen equal opportunity.
Skills Training
In addition to the surveys, the Level-Up App offers voluntary modules for personal development. These focus in particular on resilience, critical thinking, and teamwork. The modules are not a mandatory part of the data collection, but represent a supplementary support offering.
Study Timeline
The study accompanies students from Germany's Abitur class of 2027 and at least one parent over a period of approximately 18 months.
First Survey
Comprehensive baseline survey on educational plans, career aspirations, and family communication patterns. Duration: approx. 10–15 minutes.
First Survey
Comprehensive baseline survey on educational plans, career aspirations, and family communication patterns. Duration: approx. 10–15 minutes.
Second Survey
Second main survey: How have plans and expectations evolved? Duration: approx. 10–15 minutes.
Second Survey
Second main survey: How have plans and expectations evolved? Duration: approx. 10–15 minutes.
Monthly Short Surveys
Regular brief surveys to capture developments over time. Duration: maximum 5 minutes per survey.
Monthly Short Surveys
Regular brief surveys to capture developments over time. Duration: maximum 5 minutes per survey.
Final Survey
Concluding survey after the Abitur: What decisions were made? Duration: approx. 10–15 minutes.
Final Survey
Concluding survey after the Abitur: What decisions were made? Duration: approx. 10–15 minutes.
All surveys are conducted via the Level-Up App and can be paused and resumed at any time.
Study Design
An overview of how the Level-Up Study is structured over 18 months.
Survey Topics
The surveys are modularly structured and cover three central thematic areas.
Educational and Career Orientation
- Current orientation and sources of information
- University and vocational training plans
- Weighing alternatives (e.g. university vs. vocational training)
- Importance of various aspects for career and location choice
- Perceived quality of different further education pathways
- Application and decision-making processes
Future Expectations and Life Planning
Participants work through structured scenarios describing various training and university options. The aim is to capture how different conditions affect decision preferences.
- Expectations regarding professional development
- Income and career aspirations
- Work-life balance
- Importance of security, meaning, prestige, and flexibility
The Role of Parents
- Communication patterns within the family
- Agreements and differences in expectations
- Perceived and actual influence on students' decision-making
Participate & Incentives
Who can participate?
Who can participate?
Your rewards
To support and reward long-term participation, the study includes several incentives:
Each split equally among students of the three schools with the highest participation rate of student-parent pairs.
AI Career Chatbot
A low-threshold information service for educational and career orientation — built right into the app.
Specially developed
The Level-Up App includes a purpose-built AI chatbot for educational and career orientation.
Reliable information
The chatbot is trained on German labour and higher education market data from the Federal Employment Agency — minimising misinformation.
Operated by Fraunhofer FIT
The chatbot is operated and maintained by Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT — ensuring technical quality and data security.
Easy to use
Ask questions about universities, training programmes, career paths, and more — all in plain language.
Data Protection
Protecting participants' data is of the highest priority. The study is conducted in strict compliance with applicable data protection regulations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Secure Infrastructure
The surveys and the AI chatbot are operated on local servers of the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics and the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Information Technology FIT — no third-party cloud services.
Data Separation
Registration data for the app (email addresses) are stored separately from the survey data, so that survey and chatbot data alone cannot be traced back to individual persons.
Purpose Limitation
The collected data are used exclusively for scientific purposes and are not shared with third parties outside the research context.
Voluntary Participation
Participation in the study is entirely voluntary. It can be discontinued at any time without giving reasons and without any disadvantage.
Full Data Protection Statement (German)
The full data protection statement is currently only available in German (as legally required for German research studies). Please contact us if you need a translation or have questions.
Team & Institutions
