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BBC reports that Germany has abandoned tuition fees altogether for German and international students alike and more than 4,600 US students are fully enrolled at Germany universities, an increase of 20% over three years. "When I found out that just like Germans I'm studying for free, it was sort of mind blowing," says Katherine Burlingame who decided to get her Master's degree at a university in the East German town of Cottbus. "I realised how easy the admission process was and how there was no tuition fee. This was a wow moment for me." When Katherine came to Germany in 2012 she spoke two words of German: 'hallo' and 'danke'. She arrived in an East German town which had, since the 1950s, taught the majority of its residents Russian rather than English. "At first I was just doing hand gestures and a lot of people had compassion because they saw that I was trying and that I cared." She did not need German, however, in her Master's program, which was filled with students from 50 different countries but taught entirely in English. In fact, German universities have drastically increased all-English classes to more than 1,150 programs across many fields.
So how can Germany afford to educate foreign students for free? Think about it this way: it's a global game of collecting talent. All of these students are the trading cards, and the collectors are countries. If a country collects more talent, they'll have an influx of new ideas, new businesses and a better economy. For a society with a demographic problem - a growing retired population and fewer young people entering college and the workforce - qualified immigration is seen as a resolution to the problem as research shows that 50% of foreign students stay in Germany. "Keeping international students who have studied in the country is the ideal way of immigration," says Sebastian Fohrbeck."They have the needed certificates, they don't have a language problem at the end of their stay and they know the culture."
Original Submission
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Dogeball on Wednesday June 10 2015, @11:04AM
Because in the US, they pay tuition, but food and housing is free?
You appear to be arguing against free tuition as a social mobility factor. Do you think that poor Germans seeking education are worse off than poor Americans?
Or are you suggesting that Germany should do more to help poor USA citizens?
This site [topuniversities.com] reckons the annual cost of study in USA is between $10k and $40k, depending on the institution type/state. Living costs in Germany are not going to be that much, and finances are not going to be a factor in the prestige of the university you choose to attend.
Sure, you've got to find the money somewhere, but I can see an ambitious/motivated American from a less well-off background doing better for themselves in Germany than staying at home.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday June 10 2015, @12:50PM
As a non-native English speaker (with 10y or so learning English as a foreign language), I did have some difficulties in finding a job in my first year after arrival in Australia. You seem to suggest that the Germans employers would embrace a USian which (very likely) didn't study German for more that 2-3 years? (or is it German frequently picked as a major in US highschools/colleges? No? I thought so.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 1) by Dogeball on Wednesday June 10 2015, @01:56PM
I'm sorry you had a hard time getting work :(
I struggled in South Africa, since fluent bi-lingual (pick two from Afrikaans, English and Xhosa) was a requirement for most jobs.
You're probably right that it would be difficult getting work without a certain level of German proficiency, but for someone who knows that they want to go there, the US government rates German [effectivelanguagelearning.com] in the second easiest category of languages for native English speakers to learn, requiring 30 weeks of study to master.
The second issue foreigners tend to face is jingoism; i.e would someone with a US accent find it harder to get a job than other non-Germans?
In my experience, English speakers are amongst the touchiest about their precious language being spoken badly. Sadly, people in the UK who speak grammatically correct English with a strong foreign accent are often treated by locals as if they can't speak English at all, and it depends on where is sounds like they're from. It's possible that you faced some of this in Australia.
From what I've seen, Americans in Germany have an easier time than most foreign nationalities have in the US.