(reprinted from Daily Kos, Oct. 10, 2014)
[image: Great Hall, Heidelberg Univ.]
All German universities are now free to Americans and all other international students. The last German state to charge tuition at its universities struck down the fees this week.
Why are they offering such a generous plan?
In explaining why Germany made this move, Dorothee Stapelfeldt, a Hamburg senator, called tuition fees "unjust" and added that "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."
The perks don't end at free tuition:
Even before Germany abolished college tuition for all students, the price was a steal. Typically semester fees were around $630. What's more, German students receive many perks including discounts for food, clothing and events, as well as inexpensive or even free transportation.
Considering the average student loan debt in the U.S. is $29,400, a lot of U.S. high school students would do well to start learning German.
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NOTE: The U.S. has 21 million undergraduate students. It would cost U.S. taxpayers $246.8 billion to pay for a 4-year college program for all of them. That is about 1/8th the cost of the Iraq War. Think about that the next time some politician wants to put U.S. “boots on the ground” in another war in the Middle East or elsewhere.
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My sister took four years of German in high school. But that was another time. She got to speak German to her German landlady as a military wife during her husband's stint in the Army, drafted there during the Vietnam War, but no higher education. She got that at the local community college with two years of accounting that has served her well.
Ron