GERMANY: Limited access to higher education

Skilled workers without the traditional abitur or higher education admission certificate are having particular difficulties gaining access to higher education in Germany. The country's "Hochschul-Informations-System" (HIS), an independent company providing higher education statistics, has confirmed this in its European Students Report covering 23 European states.


Students lacking an abitur account for just 5% of the overall student population, putting Germany on a par with Latvia. The HIS survey shows that only Italy and France's statistics are worse. At 36%, Sweden takes the lead, while prospects for people coming in through the back door are good in Spain and Scotland, where every third or fourth student does not have a general certificate of education. In the Netherlands and Ireland, every 10th student does not hold such a qualification.

But Germany once again got bad marks in another aspect of the HIS survey: the social background of students appears to continue to play an important role, as stressed in last year's OECD survey on education. Even students from a working-class background with a traditional abitur are poorly represented, their share being lower than in Austria. In contrast, prospects are especially good for working-class children in Finland, Spain and the Netherlands.

The HIS report says that Finnish, Swedish and Scottish students enjoy the best financial support via basic funding and grants, while income among the poorest students in Ireland, Spain and France is well below the poverty line. Although Germany's student grant system has traditionally been praised for its efficiency, parents still bear the brunt of student funding.

The report also refers to an increasing number of female students. In Sweden and Slovenia, women already account for two thirds of all students, and in Germany for nearly 50%. Turkey is catching up, too, at 47%.

Scandinavia can boast a pioneering role in terms of students with children. In Norway, every fifth student already has a child and in Sweden every sixth. In Germany, however, only every 20th student is a parent.

michael.gardner@uw-news.com