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Higher Education and Politics |
NUMBER 45, FALL 2006 |
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Tuition Fee Reform in Germany
Barbara M. Kehm
The introduction of tuition fees has brought about a long-term debate in Germany. While the majority of political actors and institutional decision makers wanted tuition fees in the higher education sector, the various stakeholder groups failed to agree on who should gain access to the extra revenue and thus blocked the policy decision. The responsible state government ministries wanted to save money by reducing the budget allocations to higher education institutions based on the income provided by tuition fees. The rectors and presidents rejected this idea and voted against tuition fees as long as state governments did not offer guarantees that institutions could invest this extra income, in particular for the improvement of teaching quality. Politically, the Social Democrats opposed and the Christian Democrats favored the introduction of tuition fees. Gradually, tuition fees have been introduced on the margins of the German higher education system. First, tuition fees were charged for continuing academic education and lifelong-learning provisions. Then the German states started to demand tuition fees from students who were enrolled more than four semesters beyond the standard period. The administrative fees for student reenrollments each semester increased as well. The last amendment to the German Higher Education Framework Law under the Social Democratic coalition government in 2002 included an explicit prohibition of tuition fees for undergraduate programs. Six of the German states—all of them governed by the Christian Democrats or a conservative coalition—brought action to the Constitutional Court, calling the federal government's prohibition of fees an unconstitutional interference into the budgetary autonomy of the states with regard to higher education. In January 2005 the Constitutional Court ruled in favor of the German states—declaring the prohibition of tuition fees under the Higher Education Framework Law to be unconstitutional and allowing the states to levy tuition fees. The controversial debate intensified. The court's decision seemed not only to be the beginning of the end of any higher education framework law guaranteeing a certain amount of systemic uniformity but also evidence of a change from the idea of education as a public good to the idea of education as a private good.
The Present Reform All the eastern German states as well as Berlin, regardless which political party is in power, are currently not planning to introduce tuition fees. They hope to have a competitive advantage and thus be able attract those German students into their higher education institutions who want to avoid paying tuition fees. In addition, Rhineland-Palatinate is also not planning to introduce tuition fees. The remaining nine German states plan to introduce tuition fees of about €500 per semester starting in the 2006/07 winter semester or in the 2007 summer semester. However, the conditions and tuition-related regulations differ in some states. For example, Bremen will only require tuition fees from students living outside the city state. Hesse would like to introduce tuition fees but will first need to amend the state constitution, which now prohibits such fees. Bavaria will charge different tuition fees at a university and at a university of applied sciences (Fachhochschule). In North Rhine-Westphalia, the government allows higher education institutions to decide the level of fees, ranging from 0 and €500. Furthermore, some differences exist in procedures involving international students, regulations for receiving and repaying loans, or conditions to become exempted from paying fees.
Consequences and Concerns of Access It is expected that the anticipated differentiation of fees will hinder student mobility within Germany—depending on the state, the higher education institution, and possibly the subject. However, eastern German states following a tuition-free policy will profit from some student migration from states that will demand tuition fees. The establishment of an elite sector within the German higher education system on the basis of the "initiative for excellence" as well as other complications may lead to a further differentiation of institutions and tuition fees, as well as reducing intra-German mobility. It is expected that universities succeeding in the initiative will eventually ask for considerably higher fees than other universities. Universities counting themselves as part of the elite group will restrict access and heighten selectivity. Other institutions will follow this approach, because they fear being left with students rejected as unqualified by the elite universities. The principles of free access and students choosing their higher education institutions will be reversed.
This is a slightly revised version of an article originally published (in English and French) in IAU Horizons 2, May 2006. The author thanks the Association of International Universities for the permission to publish this revised version. [Online] Available: http://www.bc.edu/cihe/newsletter/Number45/p2_Kehm.htm
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