How US students get a university degree for free in Germany

[klr]

While the cost of college education in the US has reached record highs, Germany has abandoned tuition fees altogether for German and international students alike. An increasing number of Americans are taking advantage and saving tens of thousands of dollars to get their degrees.


In a kitchen in rural South Carolina one night, Hunter Bliss told his mother he wanted to apply to university in Germany. Amy Hall chuckled, dismissed it, and told him he could go if he got in.

"When he got accepted I burst into tears," says Amy, a single mother. "I was happy but also scared to let him go that far away from home."

Across the US parents are preparing for their children to leave the nest this summer, but not many send them 4,800 miles (7,700km) away - or to a continent that no family member has ever set foot in.

Yet the appeal of a good education, and one that doesn't cost anything, was hard for Hunter and Amy to ignore.

"For him to stay here in the US was going to be very costly," says Amy. "We would have had to get federal loans and student loans because he has a very fit mind and great goals."

More than 4,600 US students are fully enrolled at Germany universities, an increase of 20% over three years. At the same time, the total student debt in the US has reached $1.3 trillion (£850 billion).

Each semester, Hunter pays a fee of €111 ($120) to the Technical University of Munich (TUM), one of the most highly regarded universities in Europe, to get his degree in physics.

Included in that fee is a public transportation ticket that enables Hunter to travel freely around Munich.

Health insurance for students in Germany is €80 ($87) a month, much less than what Amy would have had to pay in the US to add him to her plan.

"The healthcare gives her peace of mind," says Hunter. "Saving money of course is fantastic for her because she can actually afford this without any loans."

To cover rent, mandatory health insurance and other expenses, Hunter's mother sends him between $6,000-7,000 each year.

At his nearest school back home, the University of South Carolina, that amount would not have covered the tuition fees. Even with scholarships, that would have totalled about $10,000 a year. Housing, books and living expenses would make that number much higher.

The simple maths made Hunter's job of convincing his mother easy.

"You have to pay for my college, mom - do you want to pay this much or this much?"
...

continued: http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32821678

[JimC]

It's all a hunnish plot!

[Brian Peacock]

Bluddy socialists handing out free education! Don't they know that the only moral 'free' in education is to be found in 'the free market'?

[rainbow]

It's all a hunnish plot!

Of course.
When they get to Germany, they are turned into sausages.

[mistermack]

It's all a hunnish plot!

Of course.
When they get to Germany, they are turned into sausages.

That's rather tasteless.

But they can fix that with some garlic and spice.

[pErvinalia]

It's a Marxist plot to enslave the proletariat in debt bondage. Oh, wait...

Ok, it's a Marxist plot to indoctrinate as many people as possible into the burgeoning theory of Marxism. Yeah, that's it..

[Xamonas Chegwé]

I have found definite proof of a Marxist plot!

Trigger Warning!!!1! :

[NineBerry]

Each semester, Hunter pays a fee of €111 ($120) to the Technical University of Munich (TUM), one of the most highly regarded universities in Europe, to get his degree in physics.

That's wrong. The 111 EUR go to the Studierendenwerk, which is a separate body only working in the interest of the students. It is like a student labour union with mandatory membership for all enlisted students at a university.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studentenwerk

[mistermack]

Each semester, Hunter pays a fee of €111 ($120) to the Technical University of Munich (TUM), one of the most highly regarded universities in Europe, to get his degree in physics.

That's wrong. The 111 EUR go to the Studierendenwerk, which is a separate body only working in the interest of the students. It is like a student labour union with mandatory membership for all enlisted students at a university.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studentenwerk

It actually explains that later in the article :

Students pay a fee to the university each semester to support the student union and other activities. This so called 'semester fee' rarely exceeds €150 and in many cases includes public transportation tickets.

[Brian Peacock]

What? Subsidized transport costs as well? You''ll be telling me these scroungers get help with their housing costs next.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

What? Subsidized transport costs as well? You''ll be telling me these scroungers get help with their housing costs next.

Subsidised housing for students? Don't be silly! Student housing is free in Shermany. As is beer, sex and sausages. All subsidised by BMW and VW. Everyone knows that.

[Brian Peacock]

Pah! It's is simply against the true moral principles of freedom and liberty for any career-enhancing degree-level education to not place upon the beneficiary a personal debt AT LEAST equivalent to three year's worth of AVERAGE take-home salary, and NO truly rational and logical rationallogicist can SAY otherwise unless they want to ignore THE FACT that they're just making a fallacious FAITH-based appeal to emotion.

I mean, what have students ever done for us other than steal money out of our pockets?

[Xamonas Chegwé]

Pah! It's is simply against the true moral principles of freedom and liberty for any career-enhancing degree-level education to not place upon the beneficiary a personal debt AT LEAST equivalent to three year's worth of AVERAGE take-home salary, and NO truly rational and logical rationallogicist can SAY otherwise unless they want to ignore THE FACT that they're just making a fallacious FAITH-based appeal to emotion.

I mean, what have students ever done for us other than steal money out of our pockets?

For a start, a student could, without even getting up from the sofa: photoshop red high-heels onto the cow in your avatar; make a noise similar to, if not exactly replicating, that commonly made by a birthing manatee; text their parents for "emergency Pot Noodles" and have them delivered within the hour; get far drunker than you could ever cope with on a single Tequila-Stolly-Triple-Orgasm-Smoothie-Jelly shot but then continue drinking for another 8 hours before puking rainbows into a pair of size-14, police boots that they have no freakin' idea where they freakin' came from!; Manage a 2/2 on 14 seconds of revision, despite their father only being a junior minister; and be Facebook friends, FOR FREAKIN' REAL, with: Taylor Swift, Lucifer Morningstar, that bloke out of Coldplay - not the famous one, or the other famous one, Some random dude that is so totzballzmazeballz that WTF!!!1!! and the dead dude from Star Trek (but I knew him before he died!)

So there!

[mistermack]

It's impressive that all the useful degree courses in Germany are taught in English.

And we didn't even need to rule the country to make it happen. If only Hitler were alive, he would see where he went wrong.
I expect he'd be quite a mellow liberal by now.

[Brian Peacock]

/Godwin