Knowledge economies lead example – Germany
Like privacy or energy, Germany is setting the bar for education. Not only are they higher in rankings for education than Dutch Universities, but their funding is apparently better than Dutch, English or American?
All German universities will be free of charge this 2014, when term starts next week after fees were abandoned in Lower Saxony, the last of seven states to charge. “Tuition fees are socially unjust,” said Dorothee Stapelfeldt, senator for science in Hamburg, which scrapped charges in 2012. “They particularly discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up studies. 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.[TheTimes]
The difference:
Compared to American students (see what big problem this is creating now here), Germans barely had to pay for undergraduate study even before tuition fees were abolished. Semester fees averaged around €500 ($630) and students were entitled to many perks, such as cheap (often free) transportation within and between cities. 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.[Thinkprogress]
Yes, school was created to simply keep the nation state together. But apparently in Germany they have decided that in the future, especially with robots and international competition, everyone needs to be smarter.
