I recently spent a weekend in Frankfurt to attend a dinner for former pupils of Haileybury. It was an utterly delightful evening, talking and listening to over 30 Germans aged between 19 and 30. They discussed their perceptions of their lives, their careers and the importance that their own school had played in shaping their futures. For me it was fascinating to talk to them about German universities; Germany is a society – and an economy – that has poured billions of Deutschmarks and Euros into re-building East Germany and is now trying to keep Italy and Greece afloat. On top of all that they still manage to enable young people to attend universities (for many years) with virtually no cost (about 35 euros per annum) to the students themselves. Surely a civilised society with economic aspirations should be able to do this? In England and Wales we seem to have made a complete pig’s ear of it all. Fees have gone from £1000 per annum to £3000 per annum and we are now staring £9000 per annum in the face. Do we really rate the value of a university education only in terms of economic return? The future health of our civilization (and economy) depends on the quality of young people who go out into our work force as leaders and managers. The constantly shifting sands of university fees will surely sink us as a nation. The recent fiasco of changing fees after potential students have applied seems to sum up the lack of joined up thinking from our governments on this issue. It makes one despair and look to emigrate to Germany.
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Hello! Just want to say thank you for this interesting article! =) Peace, Joy.
I worked for the European Central Bank in Frankfurt for nearly three years and soon learned that Germany operates a social market economy unlike any of the other european countries I had previously lived in. Germany channels nearly 27% of its GDP back into public welfare, compared with the USA, which is about 16% and the OECD average of 21%.
Social justice is assumed and taken for granted in a society that obeys the rules, questions very little and which therefore pulls together like a well-oiled, wealth generating, economy. The acceptance of the status quo and the willingness to devote one’s life between 9 and 5 to one’s corporate duty ensures that millions of tiny human cogs combine into a, huge, predictable machine.
It is the most socialist culture that I have ever lived in. The price for the protection of the state (which is enjoyed in some way by 90% of the population) is assimilation into a collective that may stifle the questioning or inquisitive mind.
Three years was enough for me.
I can’t help feeling that a state which ‘hands out’ valuable education on a ‘plate’ to students, is in danger of installing within them, the idea that they somehow have a right to be looked after by the country and the taxpayer.
On the flipside, I now live in the most capitalist society I have ever been in! I see, every night, young girls, plying their ‘trade’, selling themselves to pay their way through university.
As an OH, a graduate of two British Universities and a one time resident of Germany, I am not entirely comfortable with the way that young Germans are ‘groomed’ into society. ‘Education is a priviledge, not a right’, to corrupt the well-known student battle-cry – it should be valued and treasured as such.
I am very interested in Ross’s response to my blog, extolling the virtues of a society (Germany) that appears to value university education as a civilising experience as well as part of a national economic strategy. I do not have Ross’s direct experience of Germany; I acknowledge that his observations may have considerable validity. Indeed, my own experiences on that same trip to Frankfurt reminded me of the national tendency towards enforcing conformity: I was roundly told off by a curator – in a brilliant exhibition of the art work of Max Beckmann – for getting too close to the pictures! She stepped out the distance I was allowed to be from Beckmann’s stunning pictures very carefully for me – twice! Half an hour later I was also abused by a pedestrian on the banks of the Main. My wife and I were quietly cycling along the designated cycling/pedestrian path and I skirted around a middle aged lady so as not to disturb her Sunday afternoon stroll – she told me (I think – my German is not strong) in no uncertain terms that I should have rung the bell on my bike to warn her to get out of the way! No society is perfect and these are not the only occasions when my actions have elicited this kind of response in Germany. I remember pushing one of my children (aged about 2) in a pram in Baden Baden in the mid 1980s when a well-meaning lady of about 65 berated me for not having put a cardigan on him – it was mid August. Yet the point still stands about how German society values university education. The decline in numbers this year (especially among mature students) applying to universities in England suggests we have got something wrong. The different charging regimes in Scotland and Wales (I am biased here) tell us we don’t have to go the way we have. Civilised societies recognise the value of a university education in more than economic terms which, in itself, says a lot!