Hessen abolishes university tuition fees

Today the Bundesland (federal state) Hessen passed a bill proposed by SPD and Grüne (Green Party) against the will of the governing CDU and Ministerpräsident (state prime minister) Roland Koch that will abolish the regular university tuition fees of €500 per semester starting in the winter semester of 2008/09 which starts this year in October. This law will also abolish tuition fees for second degrees and for long-time students.

Hessen is the first Bundesland to abolish tuition fees after they were only introduced in the winter semester of 2007/08 in Hessen and in some other states (such as Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg) a semester earlier.

Hypothetically the (CDU) government of Hessen can object to this law within six days and force another reading of the bill, but if it is passed by the parliament again, the law will be finalized.

Source: Hessen schafft als erstes Bundesland Studiengebühren ab

Don't you mean tuition fees?

I suppose I did. I did not know the 'fees' was obligatory.

Anyway, I've edited the post & title. Thanks for pointing it out.

This is of interest to me, because my girlfriend will be starting university this coming autumn, and was looking for a uni to go to. The fees are a problem for the family, and so Hessen finally passing this bill in time for the new academic year is great news.

The interesting thing I find about this is exactly who will be picking up the bill for this. Will it be Hessen itself, or is it paid for federally? We live in Niedersachsen, but Kassel is easily reached by train (via Kreiensen and Göttingen I think), and so my girlfriend can study tuition fee free in Hessen.

Just seems odd that the Hessen taxpayer will be paying for people from a different Bundesland.

an enlightened step from the Hessen SPD and Greens

Without it, in some varieties of English (not mine) it would read like 'Hessen abolishes university instruction'.

Is the Hessen government going to increase funding to the universities to make up for this? (EDIT: The article claims they will.)
Otherwise, one has to really wonder if this is actually a benefit to the students.

I also really can't understand abolishing the long-time student fees. Having an incentive to get students to graduate is a good thing.

According to the article they want to give students that incentive via other things than the introduction of fees (okay literally it says they want to make sure people will not just register as students to use the student status (for discounts etc.) but I assume it can also help with long-time students). Not sure how but maybe by setting time limits as to when a certain class has to be taken by.

And thanks for explaining that about the tuition (fees). I know my US university (the one I went to a few years ago) uses tuition without the word fees (fees in turn is used for, well, fees), may be a UK English thing.

its a double-edged blade: why should the working stiff taxpayer float the bills for 5 and 10 year lifelong students, sittin on their duffs. Plus, students do not enjoy the freedom of entering programs and areas of studies they like, its based on very archaic system of points, grades, then: first come, first serve.

with the introduction of the BS, BA, MS, MA degrees now being globalised and internationally accepted, they may want to re-think how much government control over academic instutions is actually constitutionally allowed. I think an academic panal at each university is better equipped to handle, run and administer their institutions, not some fat cat, corrupt local government buffoon.

tuition by itself is also correct, at least in the u.s. you often hear about "tuition and fees". tuition is defined as fee for instruction. the "fees" part refers to other costs incurred, which are obligatory, but have nothing to do with instruction.

maybe Hessen is doing this because enrollment is down? i do know, however, that if you get accepted to the university of Mainz, but have poor German, they offer you up to 3 semesters of Deutsch als Fremdsprache for free. either full time or alongside your normal studies.

It may well be that with the BA /MA programs it is not as easy to stay a long term student. (You are kicked out if you do not pass so and so many exams by then and then.) This is in a way what they do in Baden Württemberg, though there we do have longterm student tuition. You have to take two intro classes and pass them on first or second try within the first two semesters (may be just one class for other majors). And then you also have to have your Zwischenprüfung (another 7-8 classes, or another number for other majors) by the end of the 4th (or 6th) semester at the latest.
As for students who really study, just very little, of course they can technically take as long as they like for their Hauptstudium right now, only their right to take the examinations expires after a certain time (very relevant right now, as the Magister and Diplom degrees are being faded out).

But 5 year students are not longterm students, that is actually a pretty good amount of time to graduate after without any stays abroad etc. (on the old Magister & Diplom degrees). Longterm student is defined by Regelstudienzeit (standard period of study) + four semesters. For one of my majors it is 9 semesters (so you'd be a longterm student after 13 semesters, 6.5 years - but as far as I know this is about Fachsemester, not Hochschulsemester, so any amount of time you have spent abroad does not count towards the time). 9-10 semesters is probably what the standard period of study is for most Diplom / Magister / Lehramt majors is.


Ok that's how I know it too. But I suppose a version that is correct for everyone on TT is better.

I think the reason it is done is simply that the SPD and Grüne never wanted to introduce it anywhere in the first place and now that they have a majority in the Landestag (but the state is still governed by CDU) they can pass a law like that while before they couldn't do anything against tuition being introduced.

Nah, it´s pure political powerplay. SPD, Grüne and Die Linke want to prove that they can undo regulations that CDU has introduced before the last election.

I wish they would abolish and wipe out the UK student loan system...

And it only took us two years of protest (and about 1500 arrests in that time), sueing the government in Hessen's Supreme Court (twice!) and a new state parliament election with the study situation being a highlight.


The question is if there ever was a benefit. The positions in the budget which the fees can be spent on are tightly mandated to the point that many universities actually either have money left over, or shadily rerouted it to positions where they're not supposed to go (such as heating for the university buildings).

I study in Hessen. I've seen zero improvements so far. Not even new tutors, like in other universities. There are still a number of 6th-semester classes (!) stuffed with over 500 students, and there are still classes where the prof who's supposed to hold it will pop in 3 or 4 times during the semester, as they're abroad during the rest of the time. If you're lucky their assistant will hold the class instead.

Our student council offered us a discount on books at the end of the last semester (from a select list, and with notification of the students of this 24 hours before the deadline) - paid from the left-over money. Oh, and our department building has four new 32" flatscreens hanging in the foyer of the building advertising for some conferences and such.

Oh wait... there was one benefit for me. We got new ashtrays, and trashcans next to them. The old ones were constantly tipping over, and were always filled with trash.


The initial SPD/Green draft law would have essentially kicked out students if they studied more than 2 years beyond the set maximum for their course, similar to how it's done at FHs. This was removed from the draft by the Left Party, with the result being that the current situation remains, where you have to pass an exam at least once every 2 years.


... they aren't. Automatically at least, as far as international transfer goes (graduate studies). Not any more than the old Diplom and Magister was. And "acception", i.e. accepted by the industry? The old grad degrees always were accepted internationally.

It's Hochschulsemester, not Fachsemester - at least in Hessen. You get a discount of 2 semesters maximum if you switch subjects, almost all other possible reductions were removed when the general tuition law came into effect. The possibilities for filing for a "vacation semester" were also reduced.
Stays abroad go in full against your balance, if you are enrolled "at home" (often required). In Hessen you also can't file for a "vacation semester" for this.


Or rather: they're giving the people what they were voted into parliament for. There were two really big subjects which decided the last election: tuition, and the even worse school reforms in Hessen.


Universities in Germany get zero from federal level. The government tried, but the Länder disagreed.

The "anti-tuition movement" - ie. the students who are organizing against it (on federal level), and who got the SPD and Greens in Hessen on their level - is moving on. Next target on the list is NRW.

thanks for the heads up. why would anyone choose to study in heidelberg then?

No idea. I study in Darmstadt

Nah - really, if you study in Heidelberg, you'll likely have the money to pay tuition as well. Same for e.g. Munich. If you're poor (and i mean really poor) you don't consider these anyway due to the high cost of living there.

Hessen lost around 25-30,000 students (15%) in total when introducing long-term student and general tuition.

Oh okay, in Heidelberg (and the rest of Baden Württemberg I assume) you can get up to 4 Urlaubssemester for studying abroad (if it is through a program of the universuty or Erasmus). Maybe that's why. I am pretty sure that ours goes by Fachsemester because else I'd already be a long-term student. *cough* Unless of course they don't tell you that.


Because many states without tuition still charge tuition if you are not originally from that state to avoid university tourism (or whatever you want to call it), not sure if that is the case in Hessen though. And besides, some people can afford the €1000/year for a better university or a nicer university town. There are also cases in which tuition is waived (if you have a child, if two siblings are already paying / paid tuition etc.).

kato, not all of my friends are 'rich'. One friend of mine is studying in Heidelberg now after she did an Ausbildung already and she is financing the degree all by working part-time. She also doesn't receive Kindergeld (or Bafög). Most of my friends have a job. And then obviously some are from Heidelberg, so they can live at home.

Good point, although there are ways around it.


Yeah, the fees themselves are problematic. In NRW, close to 20% of the fees go to the Landesbank to pay for loans to students who can't afford the fees (probably similar to other states). The limits on how the funds can be spent lead to a lot of limited-impact small-scale or pilot projects, but don't always lead to addressing the big problems. Departments can't hire new permanent faculty with these funds in most cases (a huge critical issue for student education, in my opinion) because a) the funds are determined from year-to-year, and part of a professorship includes pay for research and service, not just teaching. Of course, a new faculty position does more good than some LCD TVs, but I don't make the rules...


In fact, in some ways it's worse. The new German bachelor isn't even recognized by all German employers as worthy of anything. And the German Master's is of hugely varying quality depending on program and often doesn't really resemble a US or UK Master's (which was--in theory--supposed to be the model). To have a true Master's program, departments need to establish classes for Master's students, but there aren't always funds to do so. Just renaming things and counting up credit points doesn't lead to a successful degree program.


I'm in NRW, and the boycotts for tuition this past Sommersemester were not very successful. Their campaigns are quite extreme--tuition is a violation of the Grundgesetz and the UN charter on human rights, etc. etc.

We'll see what comes in the future.

They couldn't tell you anyway - the "concept" of a long-term student was abolished in Baden-Württemberg when general tuition was introduced (unlike in Hessen, where you have to pay first 700, then 900 if you're long-term, in Baden-Württemberg you pay a "flat" 500 the entire time).


All such laws where actually introduced (Bremen, Hamburg) were struck down in court so far - that concept has serious constitutional problems. The Bundesverfassungsgericht actually has a case running on that currently.

Oh okay, thanks, I didn't really follow the development of those situations (as they do not apply to me anyway).

I also didn't know that the concept of Langzeitstudent was abolished, I just knew that there are no extra fees charged.

Do you know how it is in RLP? They still don't have tuition so if I wanted to, could I go to a university in RLP and not pay any tuition as a Bavarian (official residence in Bavaria)? (Hypothetically, I am definitely not going to transfer to another university.)

We ran the same "propaganda", in addition to it being a violation of the constitution of Hessen, and that constitution allowing "resistance" in such cases.

Actually, so far the campaign in NRW has been pretty mild. Wait till certain elements from Hessen spill over, i.e. occupying ministries, disabling infrastructure, harassing government members and so on. Some of the stuff going on in the past two years was head-boggling - seriously. Godspeed to that guy who lost his leg.


RLP is planning to introduce such a "fee for foreigners", however due to similar problems as in other states hasn't done so. They're still entirely tuition-free.

Another thing to consider is that also today, a VG struck down the Zweitwohnungssteuer for students.

You crazy Americans. Tutition to anyone else just means "instruction", it has nothing to do with payment. You guys should see if you can't start using the word right, or I guess you could care less eh?

'tuition' as a noun referring to 'tuition fees' is listed in the OED as an American usage with attested uses as early as 1828:


I would never use tuition without an accompanying noun or verb denoting payment or charging of fees: tuition bill, tuition fee, tuition charge, tuition payment, pay tuition, charge tuition, tuition costs. I wouldn't say "lower tuition" or "abolish tuition", but I might say "stop charging tuition". Interesting.

Maybe "Stop charging FOR tuition". Anyway, like I said, you crazy Americans messing up the language.

aren't Hessen just doing what the Scottish government did and ending a hated policy that impoverished students setting them at an immediate disadvantage when the state should be encouraging folk to embark on higher learning? But will it mean that Hessen students wherever they are wiill be free of fees and non-Hessen students will not?

What?

This means studying at any (state-owned) university in Hessen is free, no matter where the student is from.
Studying at a university outside Hessen depends on the laws of the state that owns that university, no matter where the student is from.