German universities: Pay up, young ‘uns

Date: 10/05/03

The taboo against making students pay fees at state universities is being broken

FOR three decades, all state higher education in Germany has been free. Just before last year's general election, Chancellor Gerhard Schröder decided to enshrine this in law, at least for first degrees. But now, with an ever-tighter squeeze on public spending, a growing number of university heads and governments of Germany's 16 Lander (states) are arguing for student fees, to ease universities' crowded lecture halls, update their ill-equipped libraries and improve their declining research performance.

Although Germany's universities are free, less than a third of school-leavers go on to them, compared with an average of nearly half in other rich countries. And nearly a third of those who do go drop out before completing their course - double the British rate; under a fifth actually get a degree. The Diplom, as a first degree is called, is of a higher standard than the American or British equivalent. But Germans take, on average, six-and-a half years to get it. Many take far longer, all at the taxpayers' expense.

As a spur to dawdlers, the Christian Democratic state of Baden-Wurttemberg decided four years ago to introduce fees of €500 ($550) for every half-year of study after six-and-a-half years. The scheme has halved the number of long-term students, while putting extra cash into university coffers. Three other states run by Christian Democrats - the Saarland, Hamburg, and Thuringia - plan to follow suit.

Some Social Democrats are also beginning to broach what has long been considered a taboo subject among their faithful. Wolfgang Clement, the government's superminister for economics and employment, was himself not so long ago keen on the idea. In the general-election campaign last summer, he said that long-term students in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany's most populous state, of which he was then premier, would have to start paying fees. Thousands promptly took to the streets in protest. Fearful of losing votes, Mr Schröder hastily called Mr Clement to order. A university place, he declared, should depend on “what a student has in his head, not what daddy has in his wallet”. Federal legislation banning fees for first degrees was hastily rushed through.

The idea of fees for long-term students was not, in fact, squashed flat, as the ban covers only the four or five years deemed normal for a first degree. Baden-Wurttemberg and five other Christian Democratic states have nevertheless decided to challenge the ban before the Constitutional Court, arguing that the federal government has no right to intervene in education, which is meant to be a strictly state responsibility.

Their challenge could well succeed. Fees could then soon become common, especially if Mr Schröder fulfils another election pledge, to raise the proportion of school-leavers going to university from 30% to the OECD's average of 45%. Many universities feeling the pinch (in Berlin, for instance) would be pleased.

• Primary Source