Note these statistics by the International of International Education (IIE):
Britain, for example, has nearly 300,000 foreign students out of a total university student population of 2 million; Germany is next with nearly 250,000 students and Australia has nearly 200,000 students
It is interesting that Germany is on the list. Give various German publications a browse and you can’t help but notice the stark contrast in content to mainstream education reports emerging from countries like the US, Britain or Australia. In particular, the mainstream German press barely considers funding or an economically-driven agenda when it comes to education. Rather, the focus remains on the quality and nature of education.
Der Spiegel (which I’d consider the best magazine worldwide) publishes a supplementary magazine on education, titled “UniSpiegel”. Its repeated coverage of the intimate life of student affairs and politics is interesting and appears to have been neglected and replaced with fiscal issues in countries other than Germany. The entrenched theme of ‘education as a right’ would today be considered very traditional, especially when comparing such treatment worldwide.
There might be several reasons for this, but the main one should be the overarching (today unconventional) policy, which provides for free higher/ secondary/ primary education to German citizens. In fact, private schools are highly unpopular and therefore hardly exist. It could therefore be argued that interest in fiscal aspects of education are neither reflective nor necessary. This month, for example, the cover story of UniSpiegel reported on German student politics today and before, which was exceptionally portrayed in a positive light. Most media too often ignore student activism in particular, but the UniSpiegel exceptionally covered a boycott Coca Cola rally happening in the United States (Studenten meutern gegen ‘Killer-Coke’”) for example, written by one its very own journalists. In the same issue, the UniSpiegel reported on another protest of medical students whining over job prospects (“Beruflische Zukunft nur im Ausland”).
One thing’s certain, student activism along with media exposure is alive and well in Germany.
