Matt Down Under

In the last few weeks I was involved in a discussion (1, 2) about the educational system in Germany. A German friend of mine was blogging about the outcome of a recent research study which showed that the introduction of university fees in Germany a couple of years ago (until then fees were not permitted by law) prevented thousands of young people - especially from not-so-wealthy families - from starting studies at a university. How surprising.

Since then I’ve been thinking about the differences between Australia and Germany and it’s interesting to have a closer look. I’m still not sure how I managed to survive all those years in school and get away with a university degree. I feel pretty lucky, in fact I had a lot of luck and there were lots of moments when I was close to leaving (or forced to leave) university, or even back in school, because I didn’t work hard enough or because I was sick of everything. Somehow I managed to stay on track and bring it to a happy end.

Because my own career went somewhat untypical compared to the average school kid or student, I don’t want to share any personal details here ;-), I just tell you that I could have finished everything a couple of years earlier if I had had a better organisation, if I had worked harder or if I had been able to see the future.

The German school system

So how do the educational systems compare? (Keep in mind this is a rough comparison - I might be lacking details and things might even change in the future, I’m only describing how it appears to me at the moment). In Germany, the average kid leaves Kindergarten (child care) at the age of 6 and finishes elementary school at the age of 10. Then, depending on your grades (there’s big discussion about this for ages) you get a recommendation for one of three available types of secondary schools. It’s not mandatory, but most parents actually stick to it and send their kids to the recommended type of school.

The best one of these three types would be Gymnasium, duration is 9 years, but I think they shortened some to 8 years even though I read nothing but bad feedback. So let’s say at the age of 19 you finish Gymnasium and got the qualification to start studies at a university (if you didn’t have to repeat a year due to bad grades - like I had to). Most guys have to do one year of military or civilian service afterwards, so let’s say at the age of 20, guys start their studies. Girls can start one year earlier, pretty fair system, isn’t it?

The second type of secondary school would be Realschule which is something like a general school. It’s duration is 6 years if I remember that right. There’s not much difference in quality of teaching, the main difference to Gymnasium is simply that Realschule is shorter and you don’t get the qualification and permission to go to university without further special education. So most people finish at the age of 16 and then they start working or get an apprenticeship (if they manage to grab a spot - another problem).

The third type of secondary school is Hauptschule, which is something like a general school for everyone who’s grades are not good enough to get a recommendation for one of the first two ones. The problem here is, everyone who has problems in elementary school (usually lots of migrant children with bad knowledge of German) are sent to this school and it has a very bad reputation. Mostly due to this bad reputation, pupils have a bad reputation too, and it’s incredibly hard for them to find a job or apprenticeship afterwards. But I don’t want to go into detail here.

Going to university

Back to the first type. Average guys start studying at the age of 20, girls at the age of 19. Until recently, there were no Bachelor/Master degrees available on German universities, it was only possible to get a German diploma, which basically is recognized as being equivalent to a Master degree. Normally it takes about 5 years to get, although I think the average student needed around 6 years according to statistics.

Recently Germany switched to Bachelor/Master system (finally). The only problem is, most Germans think a Bachelor degree is not good enough, so most students tried to get a diploma while available, and now most students seem to try to get a Master degree, because they fear that having ‘only’ a Bachelor degree won’t be enough. A problem here is, that many universities didn’t put much thought into switching to the new system. They just cut the 5 year diploma course into a 3 year Bachelor and then optional 2 year Master, without actually changing the courses and lectures. So in the end the first years (at least in computer science at my university) are full of theory and only few practical courses. In the end this leads companies into thinking that Bachelors lack the necessary practical knowledge. It’s a pretty stupid situation in Germany, it will probably take years and generations, until the new system really works.

So the main problem is simply, that most people still try to study 5 years, even though they could start working after 3 years with a Bachelor degree. After all, guys would finish at the age of 25-26, girls maybe at the age of 24-25.

Ok now what is different in Australia? Pardon me if I got some details wrong, but here’s the situation in Tasmania as far as I understand it: I don’t know about elementary school or child care, but most of my friends finished high school at the age of 16. They then went to college for another 2 years. So at the age of 18 they have the qualification to go to uni. Since the Australian military is an all-volunteer force, there’s no compulsory military service. People then go to uni and finish with a Bachelor degree at the age of 21. Most people don’t need a Master degree, the system seems to work great here.

This leads to some interesting observations and conclusions. A few weeks ago I actually met a girl who had just started with her PhD project and she was 22, that’s incredible. Most PhD people I met in Germany were 5 years older. In general, people finish university about 3-4 years earlier than in Germany, that’s a huge difference. What’s interesting too is that companies in Australia don’t seem to care much for degrees, they care more for work experience. No one ever wanted to see my Bachelor degree so far, they only wanted to see some work examples of previous work, so they can see that I’m actually able to do the work that my job implies.

Summary

In the end there’s the following situation: as long as German students stay in Germany, they will be fine with their diplomas and Master degrees, they only lose a lot of time compared to students like in Australia, but they will most likely never find out. If Germans go to Australia and apply for a job, they might find that someone else with ‘only’ a Bachelor degree might get preferred because this person has several years of work experience whereas the German diploma/Master person spent this time at uni which is not really what most companies seem to look for.

My personal experience is that nothing is more valuable than work experience. Today I’m glad I wasn’t accepted at my university when I applied for Master courses last year. After two years of Master studies I would have finished my education at the age of 28-29, with zero work experience. That’s horrible, but for many Germans totally acceptable. When I think about my friends here in Tasmania who will finish their degrees at the age of 21 or 22 I really admire their situation. This is just fantastic. Most of them even have the time to spent one year travelling overseas before they go to uni. This system seems to be so much better here.

And if you think that salary is dependent on your degree (like it somewhat is in oldfashioned Germany), you can find excellent jobs here (like I did) with a good starting salary, and after a few years this work experience gets rewarded with higher salaries.

So in this small international comparison (don’t know how close to the facts it is though), the German system seems to be the clear loser. Graduates in Australia start working many years earlier which obviously is a massive advantage for everyone.