Universities are Free again in Germany

It's basically because Germany have a competent government, the Conservatives are ideologically driven towards a policy of austerity it doesn't matter if evidence recommends another course of action.
 
Seems like progressive thinking again to me, investing in people/your country reaps more financial rewards in the long run than our current model of cutting everything back and pushing the debt on to the individual.

Yep. The problem with our country though, is our politicians don't care about our country in 5 years time, they care about their own pockets now.
 
My mentor at University was German. He said it was free when he did his Degree/Masters/PhD and whenever anyone asked him what he did, he felt obliged to give them his time and to tell them in detail what it is he does as it was the tax payer who paid for his tuition. I wonder how many people feel (or would feel) the same way in this country?

I would love for University to be free in this country but I doubt it's sustainable.
 
I would love for University to be free in this country but I doubt it's sustainable.

The entire logic behind this policy in Germany is exactly that it is sustainable. The current system in the UK, as seen in all of the media stories and policy evaluations, is unsustainable and has been since Labour introduced fees in the first place.
 
Has she got some funding/scholarship from them or are their fees rather modest compared to other US institutions?

Most of the top US schools would seem to have higher fees than the 9k per year charged by the UK universities but also seem to have plenty of funds and will seemingly subsidise people for a variety of reasons from academic achievement to race and parent's income. I remember reading about a girl in the UK, straight A* student, rejected from Oxford but on the bright side given a free ride by Harvard with a fully funded place.

She does have a scholarship but they take into account their age, parents earnings, household size, etc. For an average middle class family etc you would actually be shocked tbh I laughed at the idea at first till you plug the numbers in. Going from memory, without the scholarship our contribution would have been 17k per annum. But that includes food and lodging etc and "pocket money". So that's give or take 11 grand a year pretty much all in. And we didn't have to contribute that much at the end of the day. I think you'd be struggling to find good safe accommodation in many British cities, transport and food money etc for that much these days + tuition etc.
 
The entire logic behind this policy in Germany is exactly that it is sustainable. The current system in the UK, as seen in all of the media stories and policy evaluations, is unsustainable and has been since Labour introduced fees in the first place.

Do as many people as a percentage of the population in Germany go to university? Doesn't Germany have a really big manufacturing industry and thus probably has a lot more apprenticeships/people not going to university. A lot of people who have finished their A-Levels here go to university 'just because' or because they want 3 more years of not having to grow up.
 
good god man, the germans are being sensible again!?


education is the cornerstone of what we are pleased to call a civilised society. reference: take two people, one with a phd, another with 1gcse, insult them continuously see which one smacks you in the face first.
 
We have higher education where people aren't held back by finances :confused:. After the £9k fees came in, we had the largest ever number of people from poorer backgrounds going to uni. People get saddled with debt (although for the majority it effectively becomes a graduate tax, given they don't ever pay off what they borrowed)... but that doesn't mean a lack of finances is a barrier to university.

I never got this argument with some people. 'POOR PEOPLE CAN'T GO UNI'

You pay nothing until after you finish university. All you have to pay for is living costs. Which are the same if Uni is free or not.

Even once you finish, the repayments are tiny. Majority of people will never even pay it back. Most likely women, who go on to have families. Not working? Well you don't pay it back. Repayments a month on someone earning around £25k are about £50 a month, according to a friend of mine. Hardly a burden.

Glad some people like yourself understand this..
 
good god man, the germans are being sensible again!?


education is the cornerstone of what we are pleased to call a civilised society. reference: take two people, one with a phd, another with 1gcse, insult them continuously see which one smacks you in the face first.

I find people who have a higher education can be worse when argued with. They sit up there on their high horse claiming how much more they know, how better they are, etc.

When proved wrong, or simply disagreed with, all hell breaks loose. Often resulting to 'you know nothing' or 'what do you know'

It's strikingly similar to a parent when arguing with a non-parent... 'You don't have children so what do you know' :rolleyes:
 
It works this way in Scotland too... at least if you're from the EU but, importantly, are not English or Welsh.

Scottish tuition fees for Scottish students are paid for by Student Awards Agency for Scotland (SAAS). However, under EU regulation, it's illegal to discriminate against nationals from other EU countries, so the SAAS also has to cough up for the fees of students from the continent who have accepted a place at a Scottish university.

Bizarrely, though, this doesn't extend to residents of England or Wales. I'd like to see someone challenge this in court, as I don't see how it's not discriminatory.

Funnily enough, Northern Irish students can get around this by exploiting a loophole. Normally they're lumped as fee-paying students along with the English and Welsh. However, all Northern Irish citizens are entitled to request an Irish passport (as part of the Belfast Treaty)... which makes them exempt from fees. There have been many cases where Northern Irish students were applying for Irish passports simply to avoid the fees :D

Loophole closed afaik, now you need to have an ROI posting address, not just the passport.
 
I never got this argument with some people. 'POOR PEOPLE CAN'T GO UNI'

You pay nothing until after you finish university. All you have to pay for is living costs. Which are the same if Uni is free or not.

Even once you finish, the repayments are tiny. Majority of people will never even pay it back. Most likely women, who go on to have families. Not working? Well you don't pay it back. Repayments a month on someone earning around £25k are about £50 a month, according to a friend of mine. Hardly a burden.

Glad some people like yourself understand this..

Agreed, I've never seen the issue with tuition fees especially as you don't even have to pay it back if you don't earn over a certain threshold.
 
So, how can Germany afford this, while we are being told our system is still creaking from underfunding even with the very substantial fees being charged.
It's because Germany is rolling in cash from taxation, the benefit that it gets from being the main beneficiary of the Euro monetary union that screws over southern Europe economies like Greece and Spain.
 
So, how can Germany afford this, while we are being told our system is still creaking from underfunding even with the very substantial fees being charged.

It was said that all it takes is 40% of the Foreign Graduates to stay on in Germany for 5 years after graduating for the boost to the economy to have paid for their tuition costs.


You answered your own question, Britain tends to kick out non-EU foreign students after graduation so they have no ability to contribute to the economy
 
Universities in Germany are not free.

Whether education is funded completely socially or a mix of socially and privately via grants and loans, the native population are paying for it. It isn't 'free' just because the state pays the bills. The reality is that in the UK we invest a greater proportion of our national income in education than Germany, we have a higher rate of graduation from university and tertiary vocational training than Germany, and we have the top universities that Germany envies.
 
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