Germany makes college free for everyone

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Germany have gone back to the free model of making universities free for everyone that wants to study there in the country

As it should be everywhere.

Going to germany to complete my masters then. :)

Assuming that there is no catch, I could see Germany making a decent amount of money back with the money international students would be spending on the economy. I'm sure Tennessee will soon as well from people coming from other states (the article mentioned they voted to give free tuition to high school graduates going to two year schools).

In fact it wouldn't surprise me if the colleges near U.S. military bases in Germany are flooded with the spouses of troops stationed over there so they could get their free college on (assuming they offer English courses or the spouse knows German).

Maybe it'll happen for the Netherlands next although the model here is not too bad either. You get college payed for you and then when you get a job depending on how much money you make they make you pay some back or nothing if you don't make that much money.

I'm assuming cost of living isn't also covered?

@korvus Doesn't work like that anymore, you now have to loan money.

@deeliman: What do you mean? Loan from whom?

Lucky!

It's like they recognize that more and more jobs will require an elevated skill set, and requiring people to pay thousands of dollars to obtain those skills to perform these necessary jobs is a bad way of doing business.

Good stuff

Yeah.. but Germany not the first.

THere is no catch. The universities also have cheap apartments where you can rent it during your studying.

I believe they have also made it free to bail out other EU economies.

It's free where i live if you are below a certain income. Families with only one working will always have scolarship so it's free.

otherwise it's 900 euro

yeah i was just about to say... plenty of South American countries have had this free university education for many decades.

@Dogswithguns:

Definitely not, here in Slovenia practically all education is basically free apart from some small fees for insurance, school trips, school supplies etc., which is all together like 30€ per year probably. The state also covers student housing in students homes and even private students apartments, so on average the rent is about 100€, but the state can even cover it to where you pay 20€ if your family income is low enough. Atop of that, the state also covers transportation so you get a monthly ticket for local (circa 30km radius of your university) buses and trains for 20€, while also offering supplements for longer distance transportation.

Oh we also get state sponsored food in most restaurants, so you can get a full meal (soup, main dish, salad or desert) in most normal restautsnts for under 3€

Being an ex-socialist state has its benefits :D

You still won't get any job.

funny how toilets and cows can say that.

On topic: TO GERMANY EVERYBODY!!

Shit! I tsundere-ed

The government. After you've completed your studies you have 20 years to pay it back.

*yawn* been free here in Finland since... i don't even know how long.

but that's great news. key to an equally civilized society.

That sounds the same as the way my wife did it. Unless now they force you to pay it in its entirety no matter how much money you make. The way it is with her is, she got the loan, and she's paying according to what she makes.

Too bad that would bankrupt the USA. Won't happen here without tons of changes, there is one floating around that is like the netherlands model. The tuition is covered, you just pay back the amount in the form of a higher tax rate once you get a job. Won't go far past local though.

What is much more important is that they make University free for everyone. College doesn't mean anything in Europe.

College and university are the same in Europe and most of the world.

@lightleggy: a university is just a collection of colleges in one campus. Like college of medican college and human science or college of education all in campus.

it costs around 70 euros for one semester here, it's basicly free. You're paying for the benefits basicly

That will never, ever, happen in the utopian Islamic Republic of Iran. You'll be amazed to know that only a small fraction of the people who want to go to a free universality will actually make it (not to mention that they often aren't even allowed to study their desired field). And even so, once their education is over, they'll have to severe the government for a length of time equal to that of their education's.

As far as I know, it has always been quite cheap over there anyway.

Good for Germany. It is appalling for something as crucial and foundational as education to be commodified. Nothing good can come out of it.

That just blows. Free higher education would have made it a breeze to move there.

It's strange that it changed like that (if deeliman is sure). When my wife went to college she did take a loan from the government, they did say that she would be paying it for 20 years according to what she'd make professionally. They also said that after those 20 years whatever wasn't payed for would be forgiven and considering how little she's paying a year I don't think she'll even pay half of the loan by then...you need to be some sort of CEO to be forced to pay an amount that's painful...then again, if you're a CEO it won't be painful anyway, which is kind of the point of having you pay according to what you make.

It seems that they've postponed this change to 2015 for bachelor degrees, but you already have to loan for master degrees. They call it "sociaal leenstelsel", or social loaning structure roughly translated to English.

@korvus You were able to loan more money from the government before this change too, but it wasn't always necessary since you got what they called an achievement scholarship, which was money that the government gave you so you could pay for your studies, and if you completed your study in 10 years, you didn't have to pay it back, but if you never finished it you'd have to pay everything back.

But the money you loan from the government comes with very little interest, and you have a lot of time to pay it back. I think they even increased the time you have to pay it back from 20 years to 30 years. So it not as bad as it might seem at first, but of course it's still a downgrade from how it used to work.

@deeliman: Considering my wife finished way before the 10 years and she's paying an (ridiculous low) amount a year I don't think that's what she got.

My guess is that she's paying back the additional loan she got. Not really sure how that works though, but you could ask her.

@deeliman: I will =) Never really asked the specifics but this got me interested ^_^

Brb going to Germany

That's in the US and in english. Most languages don't even have a distinction between the 2 words. The law passed talks about Hochschules, hochschules are the name of institutions of higher education in general. Like university.

I hope Canada gets free education.

It means the same thing, the difference is that it's mostly called college in the us, so that's why i named it in that way

Yes but your post seems to be downplaying the fact that Germany made COLLEGE free because "UNIVERSITY" is still charged for.

They are the same thing in Europe. Universats/Hochschules are synonymous with the difference that Hochschule is a more general term. But they mean the exact same thing.

Bingo.

atm they are being charged for, but after this law will be abolished, it's going to be free

That's remarkable!

I would appreciate more, if Germany govt provide me free flight ticket and visa to go and study..

People in Germany are so lucky!

Good for them. Welcome to the slightly lighter side Germany :)