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.