Here’s something notable: Not paying for school.
And we don’t mean athletes getting full scholarships. We’re talking about access to higher education for EVERYONE without ever having to make a bank transaction.
Imagine how it would feel to have never had a student loan and you’ll probably be enraged to know that Germany has officially abolished all tuition fees – including those for international students.
We say enraged because it’s likely you’ve graduated from a system that charges over $6,000 tuition per semester in Ontario. Or over $5,000 in Alberta; or $4,500+ in British Columbia.
Though Quebec’s tuition is significantly less than these figures, we’re all of a sudden a lot more sympathetic to 2012’s student protests. Sure, we can be bitter and jealous across the rest of Canada, but how is doubling the cost of post-secondary education justifiable when we see it’s possible to scrap tuition altogether?
Now imagine this: the introduction of fees up to $1300 per year in Germany in 2006 was considered “radical.” We consider access to world-class post-secondary education without extreme student loan debt pretty damn radical.
As in, Bart Simpson’s definition of radical.
Increasing access to higher education by eliminating students’ dependence on wealthy parents is an ideal all developed nations should strive for – so why are we heading in the exact opposite direction?
We’re all about stemming brain drain, but if all of this isn’t enough to have you applying for a one-year visa to pick up a free Master’s degree – many of which are offered in English – in Deutschland, we don’t know what is.
#NOTABLE
Cover image from: istock.com/franny-anne
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