Germany aims foreign students

Germany aims foreign students

By Marieke van Heek

JAKARTA (JP): Education for free? That must be paradise for
students.

This is the case in Germany, where a university education can
be had for free -- an important reason for international
students, including Indonesians, to study there.

During a seminar at the German Embassy on Friday, the German
Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) explained plans for making the
German educational system more convenient for international
students. The seminar was a part of the five-day Education,
Training and Technology exhibition at the Jakarta Convention
Center, which lasts tomorrow.

At the moment 140,000 foreign students are studying in
Germany, including 2,000 Indonesian students.

Germany has always encouraged international students to study
in the country by offering scholarships. The incentive draws
large amounts of applications, forcing a tight selection process
at each university. As many as 300 of the Indonesian students in
Germany are there on scholarship.

Free education aside, students must worry about living costs,
which are similar with the rest of Europe. Compared to the costs
of living in Indonesia, they may be high. But when compared to
Australia or America, living costs in Germany are considerable
lower.

A foreign student in Germany needs about Dm 1,000 to Dm 1,200
a month to cover all expenses. For an Indonesian student, that is
roughly equivalent to Rp 5.4 million a month. This would include
renting a room, insurance, meals, books and spending money.

Most German students rent accommodation near their university.
Renting a room costs about Dm 200 a month, while insurance is
about Dm 60 a month.

Students normally either cook themselves or eat at the
university canteen to save money. Meal expenses run about Dm 350
a month. Eating at restaurants would bring up the costs
significantly.

Money can also be saved by using library books instead of
buying them. Universities normally have good libraries with a
large variety of publications. The average cost of a book, should
a student wish to buy them, is approximately Dm 60 each.

The remainder of a student's budget is for spending money,
which should be about Dm 300. Most students join a student union
which costs Dm 50 a month.

For students who decide to study abroad it is important to
know whether the degrees offered are officially recognized all
over the world. Germany has had a small problem concerning this.

Adaption

After years of maintaining their own education system since
the early 1950s, Germany finally concluded that it would adapt
its education system to international standards through the
Anglo-American system.

"The phenomenon of globalization and international pressure
made it necessary for Germany to adjust its education so that the
German system would be comparable to the international system",
German Ambassador to Indonesia Heinrich Seemann said at Friday's
seminar.

To supply the needs of the market, a few German universities
started the new international program last autumn. Master's and
PhD degrees are officially recognized and internationally
exchangeable in these programs.

The new educational program was not only started to attract
foreign students, but is also for German students. "We want to
offer a high quality education and international courses to all
students", said DAAD director Dorothea Rland.

About half of the students in the new program are German,
while the other half are foreign students.

Six international study programs were presented at the
seminar: environmental and resource management, computer science
and communications engineering, computational logic, integrated
tropical agriculture and forestry science, biotechnology and
international business.

By offering these new programs, Germany expects to attract
more international students, including Indonesians.

Many Indonesian educational institutes have said they were
interested in exchanging students with Germany "if Germany is
flexible in putting together programs for individual students or
small groups," according to an Indonesian professor who attended
the seminar.