Why money should follow students - at least to some
extent
"Higher Education provides personal advantages for
individuals studying and graduating and also for the state in which
they will settle after leaving academia and will
contribute to the cultural and economic wealth of the respective
country. And everyone who went abroad for his or her studies will
remember how their mind maps became more open, their horizon
broader. That's why we have ERASMUS in the EU, that's why all
countries support international student exchange.
But what, when some students enter a neighboring country not
(only) for those idealistic reasons, but just because they
could not obtain an admission to the chosen study- program or
to the chosen university in their homeland? And what, when these
students later just leave the country of their graduation in order
to return into their home country and deliver all the knowledge,
all the understanding, all the competencies they had acquired there
at home?
Is it fair to have the respective host country bear all the
costs of those studies alone? Especially if between 2 countries
there is not the least a balance in the numbers of exchanged
students? And especially if those students have graduated in
medicine, the by far most expensive of all study programs?
Tangible personal profit
There would be, of course, a simple and also not unfair answer
to these questions: students themselves should contribute to some
extent to the costs of their education. At least to the extent in
which they have a tangible personal profit from their graduation.
Which may amount to some 30% or 40% of the costs incurred. Those
who cannot afford the tuition fees charged for this would be
granted generous loans which they as medical doctors or
software-engineers would be able to repay well within some
years.
But as political life in Europe has come to be coined by some
strange ideologies claiming tuition fees were 'unjust' and would
discriminate against people from low income echelons, these
fees would not be well received with
various social circles, the media included.
And the EU-Commission ruling from Brussels with bureaucratic
fervor tends to put brakes on all sorts of other solutions like
national quotas etc. Instead of thinking laterally and providing a
proposal to the countries in question which I now will shortly
present here.
A simple Swiss method
Once upon a time there were not many universities In
Switzerland. Since this country is by tradition a democratic state
in which common problems are discussed commonly and then solved by
some sort of a compromise shared by all, a rather simple method was
found to reimburse those cantons (federal states) which had
to entertain universities also for those students coming from
cantons without a university. The principle was: money follows
students.
Those cantons without a university, but sending students to
study in a canton with a university paid a fair amount of money to
those which entertained the university. By this method some
sort of a balance was found. To some extent this system, now much
more sophisticated, is still working, and well.
When this (21st) century had just begun a lot of
debate was focusing again on the same topic, at that time widely
discussed in Germany: how to find a fair funding for those German
Laender (states) which 'imported' many more students for a higher
education than others, and which were left again by these students
after they had graduated.
So after some time CHE (Center for Higher Education Development)
a 'daughter' of the Bertelsmann-Stiftung and HRK (the association
of German HE institutions) together with "Stifterverband fuer die
Deutsche Wissenschaft" (Association of Foundations to support
Research and HE in Germany) proclaimed the slogan: "Geld folgt
Studenten", money follows students.
Support came from many sides. Even social-democrats like Jürgen
Zoellner, then minister of education in the state of
Rhineland-Palatinate, later senator for education and science in
Berlin, strongly advocated the idea. But like many common problems
in my country also this one was not solved commonly. Instead it was
forgotten. The stakeholders did not speak out loud enough.
First Austria, now Holland
The issue returned to the agenda when Austrian
universities began to be flooded by medical students from
Germany who had not obtained admission to one of the medical
studies at home. Austria first asked for some (reasonable)
financial support from Berlin.
But that seemed to have been the wrong address. In Germany
all responsibilities for universities lie with the
Laender/states. And they were reluctant even to discuss the issue.
Austria reacted with a quota. The EU-commission raised their
eye-brows but at least recognized there was a problem. And did
nothing. So the idea was forgotten again.
Now the Netherlands is facing again a very similar problem.
There are many students in its higher education from Germany who
have not obtained admission at home, or prefer the better
teaching skills at Dutch universities. Whatever their motive: only
a few will stay on in the Netherlands and work and pay taxes after
graduation. In the country which has paid for most of their
academic education.
And now junior minister Halbe Zijlstra has demanded that Germany
pay. Same procedure as last time with Austria. The federal
government claims not to be responsible- legally correct - and the
Laender/states just do not take notice. Not to speak of any
action.
What can be done?
First of all: make an international debate of it, in the EU.
There are more who are touched by the issue. Mobilize student's
representatives. Carry the debate into European Parliament. I know
that according to Maastricht or Lisbon treaties Education is in the
responsibility of member states.
But a DEBATE in the EU Parliament and, hopefully, publicized by
all media and by hundreds of internet blogs may well help to turn
the tide and wake up the deaf - for example state ministers in old
Germany.... The final outcome should be a contract of fairness
among EU member states modeled after the original: once upon a time
invented in Switzerland."
Klaus Landfried
More about the author and his positions see www.klauslandfried.de
Update: ESU Chairman Alan Päll agrees
with Klaus Landfried on his vision that Europe needs to debate
mobility funding on an EU-level. He believes, however, that "a
simple monetary transfer is too nationalist."
"Since we do hope that education will contribute to later lives
and wellbeing and working life of graduates and we do want them
also to move around. That is why I am favour of a European Mobility
Treaty that would centralise some funding or as an alternative,
would enable credits to be swapped or traded between HE systems or
institutions." Read his full feedback on Landfried and recent essay
on HE-funding here on ScienceGuide.