Tuition fees: no alternative?

Ireland used to have tuition fees. Then it scrapped them. There's an admin fee of a between €500-1500 which is a sneaky way to charge students, but it's nothing compared with the UK, and it's not bad considering the country is totally bankrupt.

What about a rich, successful country? Well, Germany is everybody's idea of success. They brought in tuition fees a few years ago: and now they're scrapping them.

A spokesman for the Social Democrats said: "Tuition fees keep young people from low-income families from studying and are socially disruptive."

Unlike in England, where student fees have cross-party support, the idea has never taken hold in Germany. "There is a tradition here that education is free from beginning to end, and that is very difficult to change," Fischer said.

Sören Faika, president of the Asta student union at Hamburg, said a free education for all, up to university level, was part of the treasured "Humboldtian" ideal, named after 19th-century education reformer Wilhelm von Humboldt.

"Part of that ideal is that you can study what you are passionate about, and education is free for all so that no one is excluded," he said. "When we look at the UK, it is crazy. You may think we are lucky, but it is a different situation."  

The German fees were nothing compared with the UK - get a load of this:

At Hamburg University students currently pay €750 a year, reduced from €1,000 a year when fees were first introduced in 2007 after persistent student protests, and coalition bargaining. Government grants of up to around €600 a month for students from low-income families are common.

There will be hard decisions to make about funding, but the principle is sound. Rich kids' parents can pay off the fees for them: poor people don't have the family resources to get into so much debt and get a mortgage, start a family and all the other expenses that young adults face. Still, it keeps you working obediently for capitalism, doesn't it. Heads down and don't ask questions!

"And if Germany cannot afford to let its students study Egyptology or Hungarian literature – then where can?"

God, I feel sorry for the Germans and their terrible public transport.

Train travel throughout Germany was also thrown into chaos as operators ordered high-speed trains to slow down to 200 km/hour in order to avoid accidents due to ice clumps on the rails, leading to many delays and cancellations. 

Awful. Their inefficient state-run trains have to slow down to 200kph in extreme conditions.

In other news, 201 kph (125mph) is the top speed of all British InterCity trains - unchanged since the railways were privatised (cost to the state then: £2.5bn; cost to the state now: £4.9bn - and ticket prices have rocketed). The rest don't get anywhere near.

Vuvuzealots

This is rather wonderful. Of course, the Germans will need to practice a little more, whereas English fans' hotels will be littered with abandoned vuvuzelas by now…

These gentlemen from the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra are playing Brahms and Ravel.

Peace reigns once more

I watched England in the World Cup for the first time this competition. Obviously many better qualified people than I am will explain how exactly these players managed to lose 4-1 to Germany, but I was surprised. During the Premiership season, we're constantly being told that they're world-class, and sometimes they demonstrate it - but on yesterday's evidence, they're nowhere near Germany, Brazil, Argentina (poor Mexico), The Netherlands and several other teams.

Update: if you want a depressing explanation of why good people are turned off English football, read this excellent and worrying piece by Benjamin.

Here's an explanation for England's 'phantom' goal, sent to me by a German friend who isn't gloating. No sir. Not one bit. No way.

What a very exciting evening too!

Last night, Emma and I met at the German Market. While she scowled at my carnivorous ways, I purchased lots of meat products and some lebkuchen. We drank delicious mulled wine (especially the blueberry one) and fine schwarzbier, chatted to a stunningly self-centred young lady who thought that a recession is the perfect time to set up a company offering personal shopping and concierge services to footballers' wives and yummy mummys. She didn't intend to do any of the work, you understand - apparently the profits will be so huge that she can move to New Zealand and spend her time skiing while employees actually run the business. I shouldn't mock though - she has a degree in Forensic Science and her friend has one in Business Studies so she's sorted and I'm a cynical old lefty.

Then back to The Dark Place, where we met colleagues for a drink. This turned into a bit of a disaster - we ended up looking after and escorting home a distressed young lady who was clearly having a terrible time generally, and who had been abandoned by her boyfriend and friends: they denied knowing her as they left, though the bar staff told me a different story. Aren't people bastards? I was so emotionally overcome that I required pints of something called 'beer' to calm down again.

Oh James

Neal, James and I are feeling pretty flat after our return from Oslo (and my trip to Germany), but James is hit hardest: he's flitted off to Basel/Basle (Switzerland), a wonderful town I visited for a fencing competition several years ago. He's already charmed a German woman into putting him up, showing him the town and feeding him… You British females should hurry up, or he'll disappear abroad forever!

Too cool for Schule?

I spent some of Monday in a German state high school. Ladies and gentlemen, I was stunned (by them) and ashamed (by us). There were no laptops, no interactive whiteboards, relatively few accoutrements of the kind we've come to expect here.

There were incredibly enthusiastic (and glamorous) teachers with a lot more freedom over the curriculum, an inspirational manner, and a range of students who seemed range from interested to very interested. Completely fluent in English, many were also equally fluent in Spanish and Japanese. They were an elite lot - being educated bilingually in English and German, but this was still a state school. My friends, they could easily have coped with the curriculum at my university, and in some cases actually were doing very similar things. I did try to encourage them to apply to this august institution, but their teacher implied that there are better places to choose - perhaps because I'd informed her of recent changes.

How have we gone so wrong? Why do we have an education system designed to churn out mobile phone salesmen and drones when clearly any child can achieve better when given the attention, resources and encouragement. Sure, parental aspiration helps, but it was plain to me that the average in this school was far higher than the average in Britain.

The essential difference, it seems, is that these German students were explicitly encouraged to become independent thinkers - research, synthesis and creativity were built in to every class, whereas our students are trapped by league tables, centralisation and standardisation, forcing teachers to teach-to-the-test. The results are obvious at university entry-level: many students have lost whatever love of literature and study they may have had. Over-dependence on teachers, lecture notes and study guides is widespread, and it takes a lot to regain enthusiasm, or to inspire people - something I intend to work on this year.

What were your experiences of school? And how should I change my approach to, say, Shakespeare or critical theory?

Hello again!

How are you all? I had a wonderful few days, and loved travelling through four countries (Britain, France, Belgium and Germany) by train on a single day. Old friendships were re-established, beer was drunk, books were discussed and Vole felt rather inelegant surrounded by willowy, stylish Germans.

And now, thanks to a madcap plan by James, we're going to Oslo from Thursday to Saturday! How cosmopolitan am I?

More tomorrow - haven't been home yet, just straight to the office.

Auf Wiedersehn, Pet

My old housemate Felix visited for a day - he's a cool German doing an internship in London and living in Chalfont St Peter, which I always thought was an Agatha Christie setting - or perhaps one of Bertie Wooster's friends.