In 2002, the ruling 'red-green' coalition introduced a nationwide ban on charging tuition fees at universities, allowing fees to be charged only to 'eternal students,' those who study significantly longer than the legally prescribed period. Six states governed by Christian Democrats appealed to the Constitutional Court. This was a dispute between capitalism and socialism, the principle of social equality versus the dictate of the market.
The court made a Solomonic decision: let each one do as they see fit, we'll see who does better. Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg, Hamburg, Lower Saxony, and Saarland will introduce fees from next year. Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt are waiting. Berlin, Thuringia, Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, and Rhineland-Palatinate would like to maintain free higher education, but fear that the introduction of fees in neighboring states will force them to join the race. Hesse remains silent. And only North Rhine-Westphalia and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania have said their decisive word: there will be no fees! As long as the 'red-green' (or 'red-red') government remains in power.
It would seem that the matter is settled. Nevertheless, the dispute between their supporters and opponents does not subside: after all, the states, even those that have made a decision, remain free to change it.
Opponents of fees fear that the announced amount – 500 euros per semester – will only be a starting point, and then it will snowball, and then the path to education for children from less wealthy families will be firmly blocked by a financial barrier. Opponents of free education fear that in states with free universities, higher education will degrade, because without an influx of student money it will become increasingly difficult to stock libraries, buy computers, improve dormitories, and even pay for top-tier professors – in short, it will become a kind of shabby 'education for the poor.'
However, the first thing that supporters of free education in North Rhine-Westphalia fear is that a powerful stream of students from all over the country will immediately pour into local universities – those who cannot or do not want to pay tuition. The state's 'red' science minister Hannelore Kraft even announced that a strict limit on the number of students will be introduced at North Rhine-Westphalia universities. The Green faction in the Landtag, through its co-chairs Britta Hasselmann and Fritjof Schmidt, expressed approval and anticipation of a convincing victory over other federal states in the competition for the best students.
That student fees would immediately turn from an economic and social issue into a political one was not hard to predict. Indeed, it had been so from the very beginning – as, indeed, are all social and economic issues. And in view of the upcoming Landtag elections, the political parties playing their pre-election game have been handed a major card that would be a sin not to play. The ruling coalition hopes to retain voter loyalty through free education. And the opposition leader, the head of the Christian Democrats' faction in the current Landtag, Jürgen Rüttgers, has already announced that after his victory in May he will immediately introduce tuition fees for higher education in North Rhine-Westphalia.
It is also true that the CDU program includes establishing a scholarship system for people from socially disadvantaged segments of society. Rüttgers essentially proposes to provide loans to students, requiring them to pay for their studies only after completing them and finding a job.
ZAGRANITSA FACT BOX
Higher education was not always free in Germany. In the 1950s and 1960s, students paid for their studies. In addition to the small semester fees that still exist today, instructors issued each student receipts for every attendance at lectures and practical classes, which, by the way, was compulsory at the time.
For example, at the University of Cologne in the mid-1960s, such attendance cost 2 marks 50 cents. From today's perspective, that is a very small amount, but that is without factoring in forty years of inflation. For the wallet of an average student at the time, the accumulated sum was quite substantial. To make life easier for the least well-off, a discount system existed based on the so-called 'Honnef model,' which also took academic performance into account and required regular tests. The entire system was abolished in the 1970s.
Even earlier, in the early 1950s, attending gymnasiums was even fee-based. True, there too a system of social discounts existed – for example, for large families, children of fallen servicemen, and so on. Universal free school education was introduced in North Rhine-Westphalia gradually; only starting in 1960 did the law prescribe it as compulsory.