All universities now free of charge

The Times 26 September 2014

All German universities will be free of charge when term starts next week after fees were abandoned in Lower Saxony, the last of seven states to charge, reports The Times.

“Tuition fees are socially unjust,” said Dorothee Stapelfeldt, senator for science in Hamburg, which scrapped charges in 2012. “They particularly discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up studies. It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high quality standard free of charge in Germany.”

The experiment with tuition fees, which began in 2006, was overturned by democratic pressure against conservative-led state governments, all in the west of Germany, which decided to charge €1,000 (US$1,268) a year. Within eight years, all the states have changed their minds, with Lower Saxony the last to give way after the defeat of its Christian Democrat rulers last year.
Full report on The Hornet site

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