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posted by martyb on Thursday October 16 2014, @01:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the frei-für-alles dept.

The Center for American Progress reports

Prospective students in the United States who can't afford to pay for college or don't want to rack up tens of thousands in student debt should try their luck in Germany. Higher education is now free throughout the country, even for international students. Yesterday, Lower Saxony became the last of seven German states to abolish tuition fees, which were already extremely low compared to those paid in the United States.

German universities only began charging for tuition in 2006, when the German Constitutional Court ruled that limited fees, combined with loans, were not in conflict the country's commitment to universal education. The measure proved unpopular, however, and German states that had instituted fees began dropping them one by one.

"We got rid of tuition fees because we do not want higher education which depends on the wealth of the parents," Gabrielle Heinen-Kjajic, the minister for science and culture in Lower Saxony, said in a statement. Her words were echoed by many in the German government. "Tuition fees are unjust," said Hamburg's senator for science Dorothee Stapelfeldt. "They discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up study. It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high quality standard free of charge in Germany."

[...]Free education is a concept that is embraced in most of Europe with notable exceptions like the U.K., where the government voted to lift the cap on university fees in 2010. The measure has reportedly cost more money than it brought in. The Guardian reported in March that students are failing to pay back student loans at such a rate that "the government will lose more money than it would have saved from keeping the old £3,000 ($4,865) tuition fee system."

[...]learning German might be the best financial choice an American high school student can make.

 
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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Thursday October 16 2014, @07:18AM

    by bzipitidoo (4388) on Thursday October 16 2014, @07:18AM (#106552) Journal

    A question I like to put to people is what's so magic about the line between the senior year in high school and the freshman year in college? In the US, why is the first one freely provided to the students, and is mandatory because it's thought to be essential that a democracy have educated voters, while the second is very expensive to the students, and thought a privilege and perhaps the first life lesson in financial responsibility, and not essential? Is it the magic age of 18? You young high school graduates are all adults now, now pay up!

    Also college is much more hardass, with failure being regarded as a common and acceptable outcome because of this attitude that a lot of the students are too stupid to cut it. It's not the colleges' fault that students are stupid! Pretty crappy service for all that money. Maybe the ones who don't pass ought to be given a refund, if we can't go all the way to free? One of the most eerie things about dorm life was the way the dorm started the semester full of students rubbing elbows and making noise, full of talk of bright futures, and ending the semester very quiet like a library and mostly empty like a great tomb, as if we were in a war and most of the students had become casualties.

    And why does college cost so much? Students are being asked to subsidize research. Support has been cut to the bone in recent years, and colleges have been scrambling to make up the shortfall. Not fair to the students. They've also been cutting the pay of professors. It's much harder to get on the tenure track, most are now stuck in the position of assistant professor, if they can get even that one and not the crappy title of "lecturer". When I read that some professors are on food stamps, I thought things had gone way too far.

    There's a peculiar quality to the cost cutting. Colleges are NOT cutting costs in some areas. Administrative positions are now vastly overpaid. Some have become sinecures. Building projects are very lavish. What's with the drive to turn dorms into luxury apartments? Is all this building just a way to funnel money to friends and relatives of the people in charge? Colleges have also not embraced MOOCs, and open text books, freely available. Text books are a huge racket for the schools, and I'm not surprised that they are reluctant to give that up. There's also the research racket. Research is another place that needs a hard look, what with schools scrambling to cash in on the patent system rather than taking a stand against its excesses as they ought. Then there's the football program. I see some of the rebellion and the questioning of the value of a college education as actually a revolt against the corruption. The students are fighting the textbook racket, but not the football program. They ought to shut the damn football program down, stop going to the games, stop putting the likes of Joe Pa in bronze on a pedestal. What does any of that football nonsense have to do with the stated purposes of a university, which is education and research? Nothing! Even while the school makes a killing on football, they shaft the players who actually make the whole thing possible. As students, not professionals, the players are not entitled to any pay at all. And it's thought terribly corrupt to try to bribe young men to play for your football team.

    If no one got a college education, what would that do to the nation?

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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by bradley13 on Thursday October 16 2014, @08:47AM

    by bradley13 (3053) on Thursday October 16 2014, @08:47AM (#106567) Homepage Journal

    You seem to buy into the idea that everyone should have a college education. This is not true. Some people fail out of college because they shouldn't be there: intelligence and aptitudes differ. Many careers are hands-on, and require a practical education and apprenticeship, not college.

    Germany still has three tracks for career education:

    - Trade schools and apprenticeships: for carpenters, electricians, IT system administrators, etc.

    - Technical schools (Fachhochschulen): for practical office careers: programmers, engineers, managers, accountants, etc..

    - Universities: for careers requiring a more general and more abstract education: doctors, lawyers, scientist, but also more abstract programs for computer science, engineering, etc.

    Obviously, there are a lot of overlaps, not least because both the technical schools and the universities both offer bachelors and masters degrees. However, the differences are important. Different people and different careers require different kinds of education. This is being lost in the US, with the result that it is (a) increasingly difficult to get an education in a practical field, and (b) your average college education has been massively dumbed down.

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    Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
    • (Score: 1) by Buck Feta on Thursday October 16 2014, @12:36PM

      by Buck Feta (958) on Thursday October 16 2014, @12:36PM (#106590) Journal

      Are trade and technical schools also free in Germany?

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 16 2014, @03:01PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 16 2014, @03:01PM (#106644)

        Most Trade schools are free, while apprenticeships are usually paying you a monthly salary.
        Technical schools are akin to Colleges from the US, except they are free in Germany.
        However, Private Schools do cost money.

  • (Score: 2) by metamonkey on Thursday October 16 2014, @04:37PM

    by metamonkey (3174) on Thursday October 16 2014, @04:37PM (#106689)

    You're not wrong. I still live in the town where I went to college (top tier state school, 50k+ students) and tuition is up five times what it was ten years ago when I graduated. And I had a free ride, scholarships for undergrad and fellowships (including an NSF fellowship) for grad school. So tuition is through the roof but the cost of living in this town hasn't changed but with inflation. There are a few nice new buildings, but honestly I don't know where the money goes. There's no way it's five times more expensive to teach a student today than it was a decade ago.

    I think in any organization, you have two types of people. First you have (and particularly start out with) those who believe in the mission of the organization. Teach students. Do research. And then you have the second group of people, who are the bureaucrats who come in and their goal is the perpetuation of the organization and the bureaucracy itself. Eventually they take over. They look at the coffers, they look at tuition, they look at the fact that you "have" to get a college education and say, "well, we can increase tuition and build some new buildings and pay ourselves higher salaries and hire more people underneath us." And if you don't, you're just leaving money on the table.

    Same thing with research. It goes from "create or discover new things" to "get grant money."

    The goal is no longer higher education. The goal is the perpetuation of the beast. If you try to change the system you'll never get anywhere. What board of trustees is going to approve of a new administration that wants to decrease the revenues and decrease the power and influence of the organization?

    The only thing that will change the system will be massive disruption. Like you said, MOOCs, open source textbooks. The problem still to be worked out is that whole "degree" thing. When it comes to accreditation the universities are still guarding all the doors and holding all the keys. But something's got to give because students can't afford it. $50,000 in debt for degrees that don't get them jobs. To be honest, I have no idea what I would tell an 18-year-old he should do for the next four years. I would say "skip it and learn to code," but shit, not everybody wants to be a coder. Is it so wrong to want to be a doctor or a physicist or a business administrator or a marketing expert?

    There's a pre-paid tuition program in my state where you can pay in at today's rates and when your kid is 18 his way is already paid into any of the state schools. I'm very fortunate to have parents who scrimped and saved and invested their entire lives, and when my son was born my dad surprised the hell out of me by writing a check for $53,000, and my son's tuition is already paid. Later, though, the state legislature decided $53k was too much and dropped it to $35k, so he's getting a refund. And that's good because I have a daughter on the way.

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  • (Score: 2) by scruffybeard on Thursday October 16 2014, @05:57PM

    by scruffybeard (533) on Thursday October 16 2014, @05:57PM (#106727)

    And why does college cost so much?

    Simply put, because they can. Much like planning a wedding, I have seen many smart people go gaga over getting into their favorite school, when many more economical options exist, to the point of paying almost double. Many people don't look past the fluff of the nice dorms and fancy cafeterias, rather than thinking how much will I make after graduation, and how does that compare to the amount I need to pay/borrow. If you want to see the cost of tuition drop, start capping the tuition loans. If the max you could borrow is $100k, suddenly that $200k school doesn't look so appealing.