Higher Education Mentalties -- US and Europe
The NY Times ran a really interesting article about the state of higher education in France today.
A note about the NY Times -- You need to register to access NY Times articles. Basic registration is free and allows you to look at most articles from the past 7 days. But don't even get me started about the Times Select program. To have to pay for their excellent editorial content, while they still have an ad on every page, is totally ridiculous to me, and I have refused to sign up for it on principle. Of course I really miss it and might change my mind someday.
As I was reading the article, I found some points very interesting because they showed some similarities between French and German universities:
France = "The...[University of Paris' Nanterre campus] library is open only 10 hours a day, closed on Sundays and holidays. Only 30 of the library's 100 computers have Internet access."
Germany = The library here is also closed on Sundays and holidays. In fact, everything in this town except restaurants, movie theaters, and gas stations is closed on Sundays and holidays. There is generally more internet access here though, and most of the campus is covered by wireless LAN.
France = "The campus cafeterias close after lunch...[and] by late afternoon every day the campus is largely empty."
Germany = Same deal here. The Mensa (student cafeteria) closes at 2pm, and the campus is mainly deserted after 6pm and throughout the weekend. This may be a problem unique to Augsburg though, since it (unusally for Germany) has a campus design (all the buildings in one location), and is located relatively far from the center of town (about 8 tram stops away).
France = "The practice in the United States of private endowments providing a large chunk of college budgets is seen as strange in France. Tuition is about $250 a year, hardly a sufficient source of income for colleges. But asking the French to pay more of their way in college seems out of the question. When the government proposed a reform in 2003 to streamline curriculums and budgets by allowing each university more flexibility and independence, students and professors rebelled. They saw the initiative as a step toward privatization of higher education that they feared would lead to higher fees and threaten the universal right of high school graduates to a college education. The government backed down."
Germany = There are only a few private universities in Germany as far as I know -- the first one was the University of Witten, and more have cropped up over the years. But it is certainly more common that universities are run by the government. Tuituion is similarly low here, but that will be changing next year, when the rates apparently will rise significantly. Students everywhere are opposed to fee hikes, and German students generally are no exception, but the German students I have talked to about it are resigned to paying them because they know that they're needed. Still, I went to a private college in the U.S. for undergrad, and I am going to one now for law school. I have consistently paid $20-30K a year for the privilege, taking out a lot of loans just to cover the bills. When I tell Germans about this, they look at me like I have two heads. No one can believe I'd even bother paying so much for a university degree. I think the feeling here is similar to that in France -- there is a lot of competition for jobs here, and most people see a university degree as somewhat helpful, but certainly no guarantee of finding work after graduation.
(Note -- here is an interesting article in English about German university fees that looks like an online supplement to a book. Note it is from 1996 and might be a little out of date, but what I'm reading here seems to echo even current sentiments.)
France = "Officials, entrepreneurs, professors and students alike agree that too many students are stuck in majors like sociology or psychology that make it difficult to move into a different career in a stratified society like France, given the country's troubled economy."
Germany = I am seeing a similar tendency over here. It seems that an awful lot of people are studying economics, sociology, and languages here in Augsburg. Not that those things aren't valuable in themselves, but I am not seeing a lot of practical science being studied here that would be more useful in finding a job. Maybe it's different elsewhere in Germany though. That said, a lot of American students are also studying those types of subjects as well. But I don't think competition for jobs is as fierce in the US as it is in Germany.
All in all, it was interesting (and to be honest somewhat enjoyable) to read an article that looks at the differences in higher education from an American perspective. There is a critical tone to the article that I don't really disagree with (although proponents of the French system would probably say that the NYT reporter was unduly negative). I continue to maintain that each type of system has its advantages and its disadvantages. It's fun and interesting to think critically about the differences in any event.
A note about the NY Times -- You need to register to access NY Times articles. Basic registration is free and allows you to look at most articles from the past 7 days. But don't even get me started about the Times Select program. To have to pay for their excellent editorial content, while they still have an ad on every page, is totally ridiculous to me, and I have refused to sign up for it on principle. Of course I really miss it and might change my mind someday.
As I was reading the article, I found some points very interesting because they showed some similarities between French and German universities:
France = "The...[University of Paris' Nanterre campus] library is open only 10 hours a day, closed on Sundays and holidays. Only 30 of the library's 100 computers have Internet access."
Germany = The library here is also closed on Sundays and holidays. In fact, everything in this town except restaurants, movie theaters, and gas stations is closed on Sundays and holidays. There is generally more internet access here though, and most of the campus is covered by wireless LAN.
France = "The campus cafeterias close after lunch...[and] by late afternoon every day the campus is largely empty."
Germany = Same deal here. The Mensa (student cafeteria) closes at 2pm, and the campus is mainly deserted after 6pm and throughout the weekend. This may be a problem unique to Augsburg though, since it (unusally for Germany) has a campus design (all the buildings in one location), and is located relatively far from the center of town (about 8 tram stops away).
France = "The practice in the United States of private endowments providing a large chunk of college budgets is seen as strange in France. Tuition is about $250 a year, hardly a sufficient source of income for colleges. But asking the French to pay more of their way in college seems out of the question. When the government proposed a reform in 2003 to streamline curriculums and budgets by allowing each university more flexibility and independence, students and professors rebelled. They saw the initiative as a step toward privatization of higher education that they feared would lead to higher fees and threaten the universal right of high school graduates to a college education. The government backed down."
Germany = There are only a few private universities in Germany as far as I know -- the first one was the University of Witten, and more have cropped up over the years. But it is certainly more common that universities are run by the government. Tuituion is similarly low here, but that will be changing next year, when the rates apparently will rise significantly. Students everywhere are opposed to fee hikes, and German students generally are no exception, but the German students I have talked to about it are resigned to paying them because they know that they're needed. Still, I went to a private college in the U.S. for undergrad, and I am going to one now for law school. I have consistently paid $20-30K a year for the privilege, taking out a lot of loans just to cover the bills. When I tell Germans about this, they look at me like I have two heads. No one can believe I'd even bother paying so much for a university degree. I think the feeling here is similar to that in France -- there is a lot of competition for jobs here, and most people see a university degree as somewhat helpful, but certainly no guarantee of finding work after graduation.
(Note -- here is an interesting article in English about German university fees that looks like an online supplement to a book. Note it is from 1996 and might be a little out of date, but what I'm reading here seems to echo even current sentiments.)
France = "Officials, entrepreneurs, professors and students alike agree that too many students are stuck in majors like sociology or psychology that make it difficult to move into a different career in a stratified society like France, given the country's troubled economy."
Germany = I am seeing a similar tendency over here. It seems that an awful lot of people are studying economics, sociology, and languages here in Augsburg. Not that those things aren't valuable in themselves, but I am not seeing a lot of practical science being studied here that would be more useful in finding a job. Maybe it's different elsewhere in Germany though. That said, a lot of American students are also studying those types of subjects as well. But I don't think competition for jobs is as fierce in the US as it is in Germany.
All in all, it was interesting (and to be honest somewhat enjoyable) to read an article that looks at the differences in higher education from an American perspective. There is a critical tone to the article that I don't really disagree with (although proponents of the French system would probably say that the NYT reporter was unduly negative). I continue to maintain that each type of system has its advantages and its disadvantages. It's fun and interesting to think critically about the differences in any event.
posted by Jennifer at 23:08
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