(German) Students shut classes in tuition protests

[pampango]

Source: Global Post

BERLIN, Germany — Students occupied seminar rooms. Banners hung in front of lecture halls. Students tacked 95 demands on the door of the school’s president. After months of tension, tens of thousands of students and community members took to the streets last month to protest tuition hikes across the country.

In a nationwide education strike, following on the heels of similar protests in Austria, students and university workers are demanding a stop to the privatization of education, a raise in student-aid monies, and an increase in the percentage of students accepted into master's programs, among others.

Protests took place in 35 cities and seemed to make an impact on government leaders. In a reversal, Education Minister Annette Schavan vowed to raise the BAfoG — Federal Education and Training Assistance money — which students receive when they can prove their parents can’t afford to pay for living costs. Previously, she said a higher BafoG was out of the question.

Students are adamant about keeping education a public resource, available to all, independent of class or income. Many students and educators warily consider the student Gebuhr — the $730 per semester student fees introduced a few years ago — as just the beginning of a for-profit, commodity-structured education system, as in the U.S., where the average student graduates with some $20,000 in debt, according to the Project on Student Debt, a watchdog organization.

Read more: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/study-abroad/091124/german-students-protest-tuition-hikes

[marmar]

1. Those "effete Europeans" could give Americans a lesson on how to protest.....

Land of the free, home of the brave my ass.....

[brentspeak]

7. Students in California protested their tuition hikes, though

[Libertas1776]

2. Pfft

they're just copying UC students :sarcasm:

[Earth_First]

3. $20,000 in debt after graduation?

What are we doing wrong, America?

[harmonicon]

4. and who's getting out with only 20 grand in debt?

I think I had nearly double that from my 2 years master's program alone.

[provis99]

8. no kidding. Only $20k in debt; more like $100,000 for a public school

$200,000 for a private school. Undergraduate college today is basically a playground for middle class and upper class kids who want to postpone adulthood for 4 (or 5, or 6) more years.

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. I thought the Germans had more sense than to privatize education.

[WriteDown]

6. This all makes sense except THIS?

"and an increase in the percentage of students accepted into master's programs, among others."


What are they basing this off of?