Germany scraps tuition as university ranking rise; what about Canada?

Canadian university students must be looking at Germany right now and shaking their heads.

When the state of Lower Saxony officially scrapped university tuition this week, it was not notable for its distinctiveness, but because it was the last region of Germany to do so.

And as that country returns to its roots of universal education, all the while watching as the quality of their institutions increase, Canadian students return to class amid higher tuition and often to schools of waning international acclaim.

The international reputation of Canadian universities have taken a hit in recent years despite increasing personal costs, and it begs question about the value of tuition to the post-secondary system.

The annual Times Higher Education World University Rankings were released this year week, gauging the reputations of the top universities around the world.

Canadian institutions have seen moderate results in the past, but this year saw many of those scores plummet. The country has eight schools in the top 200, highlighted by the University of Toronto at No. 20.
While that school remained unmoved in this year’s rankings, its other highest-ranked schools slipped down the ladder - notably University of British Columbia from 31 last year to 32 now, and McGill from 35 to 39.

The dip may seem slight, but when one is dealing with rankings cited to international students looking for a future, every position can mean something.

Meantime, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, the average annual tuition at a Canadian university will reach $7,755 in the next four years - a number nearly triple what it was 20 years ago.

A “cost of learning” index released by the group also details the decrease in public funding for universities, which has left tuition responsible for covering a larger share of a school’s operating cost.

"Students and their families need protection from fee increases that leave them saddled with heavy debt loads,” Canadian Federation of Students chairperson Jessica McCormick said recently. “The absence of a national vision for post-secondary education has left Canada with a patchwork of different policies and huge variations in fees from province to province. This is no way to deliver higher education in the 21st century.”

The trend in Canada’s ranking and tuition numbers have found a mirror opposite in Germany, where tuition has been scrapped at every university in the country, and international rankings have never been higher.

Considering the cost of running a top-tier post-secondary education system and the realities of today’s economy, exactly how did Germany come to the decision that free tuition is the best tuition?

Turns out it has almost always been that way. Think Progress reports that German universities only started charging tuition in 2006, but the move proved so unpopular that regions have been phasing it out ever since, returning to a policy of 100 per cent state funded schooling. This week, Lower Saxony became the last state to abolish its tuition fees.

“We got rid of tuition fees because we do not want higher education which depends on the wealth of the parents,” said Lower Saxony’s minister of science and culture.

On top of the fully-funded tuition, there is also an Excellence Initiative, a €2.4 billion project that funds research at the country’s top schools.

It seems to be paying off. According to The Local, an English-language German newspaper, German universities have crawled their way to the top of the World University Rankings. It now has 12 schools ranked in the top 200. That is more than any country except the U.S. and U.K.

The changing fates may be a sign that Canada’s funding model is off, that perhaps more government support is necessary to return Canadian universities to their former glory. The Canadian Federation of Students, for example, argues that the high cost of post-secondary education negates the economic benefit of attending university entirely by leaving them swamped in debt upon graduation.

German students, meantime, get an assist with tuition now and can become contributing members of society immediately after graduation. It’s a strategy that works for some.