Kristin Ofer
The spirit of 1968 is back in German universities. After 41 rather quiet years of studying the grandchildren of the former revolutionaries raised their voices again. They are protesting reforms to the country’s university system. But according to Germany’s education minister Anette Schavan the students’ prospects of success are rather low. She stated that the changes will go ahead as planned.
Tens of thousands of German students have been demonstrating on the streets of major university towns like Berlin, Leipzig, Hamburg and they are carrying out sit-ins in 27 universities in 23 cities reminiscent of the student upheavals of 1968.
The current generation of students was often considered as eager memorizers who are ambitious for their own careers or hedonistic party-animals without any interest in social or political activism. But in the last years German students had to cope with a lot of significant changes. Until 2005 universities in Germany were free. But the so-called university reform imposed tuition fees that range from100 to 500 euros per semester. Actually, most universities charge 500 euros.
Compared to many other countries, especially in the Anglo-Saxon world, 500 euros per semester do not seem much. But the German students are questioning the whole principle of paying for education. There are indeed students who are not financially supported by their parents and have trouble to get the required sum of money together.
Tobi, a 24-year-old student of dramaturgy is one of them: “I have to work all my free time to afford my living costs and since the adoption of the tuition fee I have to earn 1,000 euros extra per year. It makes me so angry. I can’t even join the demonstrations because I have to work,” he says.
Students whose parents do not pay for their studies sometimes spend more time earning money than actually studying.
Some banks offer special credits for students but the conditions are usually not auspicious. Especially young people studying humanities, arts or exotic subjects like philosophy, Oriental studies or stage direction do not dare to borrow money because unlike medicine or law students they can not be sure to find a well paid job right after their graduation to pay back their loan.
It would be a shame if the fear of starting a career being in debt prevented interested or talented people from studying subjects without an explicit intended career. One apprehension of the demonstrators is that Germany might lose creative, free thinking minds because of the tuition fees and the current reforms. They call for: “Free education for everyone.”
This claim, among others, is based on several studies which claim that Germany has a high level of social disparity, meaning that children of working class families have very low chances to attend university. 95 % of the children who have at least one parent who graduated go to university. Whereas only 17 % of the people who grew up in working class families have a chance for university education. It is often criticized that success in Germany highly depends on the social background. The demonstrators claim that tuition fees even worsened the inequality of opportunities.
But the tuition fees are only one complaint of the enraged students. “It’s important that people understand that we are here to complain about the whole educational system in this country and the people’s attitude towards education,” says Felix, a student from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich and his friend Max asserts: “Our minimum goal is to make education policy a major topic in politics and society.” The two are joining the sit-in of their university’s grand lecture hall. They and their fellow students are sleeping in the historical building for the last two weeks attending discussions, organizing demonstrations and formulating a list of demands which could be divided into four main categories:
• Democratization of education. The students want more say on education policy and on the decisions taken in their universities.
• An independent and self-determined education. In other words the demonstrators want a fundamental reform of the German educational system.
• Equality of opportunities. The main demand here being the abolition of the tuition fee.
• Preventing an economic restructuring of education. That is to say a wide-scoped university education instead of training personnel to meet the requirements of private capital.
German education minister Anette Schavan admitted that the current protests show that “the reforms reveal the failings of the system”. Anna, a 22-year-old student of sociology articulates the failings more exactly: “We fight against the financial pressure caused by the tuition fees, the Bologna reforms and the general situation in universities. Instead of concentrating on our studies we have to deal with more and more bureaucracy. There is hardly any space for individual interests. The new bachelor format brought us an immense workload consisting mostly of memorizing texts in order to pass a great number of exams. Studying is no longer connected with broadening your mind but with becoming a working robot.”
Another point of complaint is the overcrowding of students from which some faculties in popular universities like Berlin, Munich, Mainz or Heidelberg suffer: Too many students, too small lecture halls and shortage of teaching staff. In 1992 about 1700 professors were teaching in German universities. Today there are only 900 left although student numbers are rising.
German students feel neglected by politics and society. “On the one hand the Bavarian government spent 10 Million Euros to rescue the state bank that suffered from self-inflicted losses last year, but on the other hand they tell us that we need to pay tuition fees to afford education. That’s just not fair,” says Philipp who studies history in Munich, since the sit-in started at the lecture hall he is acting as the press officer of the demonstrators.
There is a lot of rage among the German students. Too many things have gone wrong in the past. But the protests are surprisingly calm and well organized.
A daily schedule is organized by and for the students occupying grand lecture halls. Every evening the students in Munich hold a panel discussion talking about their objectives and create new ideas. Even some professors support their students by holding lectures about education. Artists show solidarity by giving free performances in the lecture halls.
Through “Twitter” all the participating universities are connected. In that way students in Heidelberg are informed through the web service about things that happen in Marburg or elsewhere. Some people nicknamed the use of web technology like facebook, blogs or twitter “protests 2.0”.
On November 18th the biggest student demonstration since 1968 took place in Germany’s university towns. 25.000 people joined the march in Berlin, another 10.000 protested in Munich. But there were no excesses or violence. In Munich the organizers apologized to the people for closing down some of the streets for the demonstration.
Most people sympathize with the protesting students. Margret Wintermantel, the chair of the conference of university heads told Sueddeutsche Zeitung: “It is important that the students raise their voices that their studying conditions must be improved and that they need social and financial security.”
Christopher Matschies, head of Humboldt University Berlin supports his students as well: “I agree with the protests against the bungled Bologna reforms.”
“It was wrong to lump different subjects together. For example the humanities need indeed a little more structure whereas engineering studies would benefit from more freedom,”says Peter Strohschneider, chairman of the German Council of Science and Humanities.
Furthermore he criticized the reduction of the duration of study in general since the adoption of the bachelor format and the bad financial situation of most universities.
But not everybody agrees with the protests. Surprisingly the main opposition comes from students. A facebook group with the name “Throw the hippies out of our university!” has been founded and joined by over 1000 students. Most of the members study law, economics or business and want their protesting fellow students to be thrown out of the lecture halls. 20-year-old Susi is one of them: “I am really angry about what is happening here. They are complaining about 500 euros per semester and the bachelor format. That’s so stupid. In England or the US everybody graduates as a bachelor and they have to pay so much more money.” She just started studying business administration in Munich and is very upset that most of her lectures has been canceled: “They won’t change anything so at least they should stop blocking the lecture halls that the ones who want to keep on studying can go to their lectures.”
Those who oppose the demonstrators say protesters are under too much influence of leftist opinion makers and that the demands are too vague.
Indeed it is questionable what the protesting students who are discontented with the whole education system might actually achieve.
At the moment several important personalities both from politics and academia show solidarity with the students and agree to attend discussions with the students. However, in most discussions everybody is shifting blame and responsibility on others.
Education minister Anette Schavan admits that she actually has hardly any power over universities. In Germany education is comes under the premise of federal state governments that decide rather autonomously from German federal government how to regulate university education within their borders.
However, the protesters did achieve a positive result when Schavan announced on November ’/21st that the federal student support will be increased as of October 2010. Furthermore, the number scholarships will also be extended.
Although it is doubtful whether the German students might stop the Bologna reforms, they have managed to put the issue of education in Germany on the agenda.
