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.
(Score: 2) by metamonkey on Thursday October 16 2014, @04:37PM
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.
Okay 3, 2, 1, let's jam.