"ETERNAL" STUDENTS
The average age of graduates of German higher education institutions is 26 years, while in the UK and Austria it is 23.
The average duration of study at universities began to grow again in the mid-1990s, according to a report by the Scientific Advisory Council. Less than 10% of students manage to complete their studies within the maximum time limits provided for the award of a state scholarship (Bafoeg). Linguists, art historians, psychologists, engineers and IT specialists, for example, study for a particularly long time. Their study periods often stretch over 12–13 semesters. Pharmacists and lawyers study comparatively briefly and, at the same time, effectively. As a rule, they pass their first state examination (Staatsexamen) already at the end of the ninth semester.
However, things are different at different universities. For example, at the University of Passau, a master's degree in political science takes on average 10.2 semesters, while at the University of Darmstadt it takes 17 semesters. Computer science is studied most quickly at the University of Chemnitz and the University of Bremen – 10.4 semesters, while the longest is at the University of Frankfurt am Main – 16.1 semesters.
According to the Scientific Advisory Council, the duration of studies depends on the social status of students, the pace of labor market development, and the structure of the academic and examination processes of a particular university.
You can view the press release on the results of the study on the website of the Scientific Advisory Council: www.wissenschaftsrat.de (language – German).
HOW MUCH DOES A STUDENT COST THE GERMAN STATE?
Education in Germany is free, apart from a social contribution of about 200 marks, which students pay before the start of the next semester. State universities are financed through tax revenues, and private schools through the organizations and foundations that establish them. The total budget of German universities, according to the German Federal Statistical Office, is 51 billion 600 million marks.
For comparison: the universities of Stanford (USA) and Paderborn (Germany) have equal numbers of students – 15,000. However, the American university has a budget 20 times larger than that of the German university. Stanford University covers its expenses through voluntary donations and mandatory student tuition fees. The University of Paderborn exists mainly from tax revenues to the state treasury. According to calculations by the Federal Statistical Office, one student "costs" the German taxpayer an average of 13,700 marks per year, and a professor costs 600,500 marks.
The most expensive were the higher art schools, which spend an average of 23,000 marks per student per year. Training a certified specialist at higher specialized schools, the so-called "Fachhochschule", is cheaper – 8,500 marks.
The most expensive faculties turned out to be medical ones. A medical student costs taxpayers about 47,800 marks. A future engineer is much cheaper – 10,400 marks. The "cheapest" were students of humanities faculties: the state treasury pays only 5,400 marks for a philologist, and 4,000 for a lawyer and economist.
FOREIGN SCHOLARS PREFER WEST GERMAN UNIVERSITIES
Many foreign scholars wishing to conduct research at one of the German universities try to avoid East Germany. These are the results of a survey conducted by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, www.humboldt-foundation.de). The respondents were about 3,000 scholars who were asked to answer the question: "At which German universities have you worked over the past three years?"
The first twenty places in the ranking were taken by universities from the "old" federal states. The leaders were the universities of Munich, Berlin, and Heidelberg. However, foreign scholars received the greatest attention at the University of Konstanz, whose 100 instructors provided constant and intensive support to 24 researchers from abroad.
The President of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Professor Wolfgang Frühwald, expresses concern about the attitude of foreign scholars towards East German universities. Most of the 3,000 people who chose Germany for their research work and came here in 1996–2000 did everything to avoid the "new" federal states.
"In the field of international cooperation, East German universities by no means play the role that, given their technical level and the degree of staff qualification, they could play," says Wolfgang Frühwald. Frühwald sees the main reasons for this situation primarily in the fact that in the early 1990s East German universities experienced problems related to German reunification. Also important is the fact that the "new" federal states have become notorious for the hostile attitude of local residents towards foreigners.
Based on materials from Deutsche Welle.