Tuition fees

When Nadja won the first Paper Boat Challenge (mooonths ago), one of the topics she proposed was tuition fees, and I decided to write about it.

From my stays abroad and friends around the world I have at least an idea of different concepts. I wanted to be more precise, however, and tried to collect descriptions and opinions from different people. The feedback was – let’s say – very little.

Therefore I decided for a different concept: a newspaper comment style which – hopefully – provokes some reactions...

The idea that education should be free and equally accessible to everybody is a really socialist one. Maybe it’s the only true socialist one left in our society. So what surprised me wasn’t the introduction of tuition fees in Germany. I was more surprised that so many were surprised about the “new” policy.

Already before the “change” equal access to education did not exist. Who can go to university? Those who passed their Abitur (comparable to A-levels in the UK). What do you have to do to pass? Go to school for at least 13 years. Who can afford leaving school at the age of 19 instead of 15? Those who come from a well-situated background, right? You see, equal chances don’t even exist in Germany. I won’t start talking about other countries…

Of course you could say: “The whole system is wrong.” However, I’m not only an idealistic but also a pragmatic person. Therefore I see that it would be nice to have free education for everyone and at the same time that there is not enough money to pay it.

I don’t like the idea of elite university as they exist in the USA and as they are intended to form in Germany. There is a lack of highly qualified workers anyway and a lower percentage of university students than in other countries. Because of this, new forms of financing “mass education” have to be found. At Mumbai University (Bombay) they think about entering the stock exchange. By the way, they wouldn’t be the first university to do this step. But do you want to have universities that depend on their shareholders?

The problem is that studying is an investment in your future: You have to “pay” now and the benefits lie in the future. So my proposal is a system where you pay fees after leaving university. A certain percentage of your salary maybe even during your complete working life.


For those who don’t know the background: During the last 2 years many German states introduced tuition fees. Before education was free except for those who studied extremely long or went to a private university. (In Germany state universities are considered very good so there is no real difference in educational quality between those and private universities like in other countries.)

One year… and still blogging

It’s the “Paper Boat“’s birthday today as I published my first post one year ago.

It’s time to celebrate but also to say thanks to you, the readers of my blog.

It’s also time for a little review:

• Of the last 12 months I spent 5 months abroad and I think I can say that those were the most intensive of my life: I learned so many new things, I met a lot of interesting people, visited places I only had known from pictures…
• I wrote my thesis which took me – if you start counting from the first day of my project – a bit more than 6 months.
• I finished my studies by the defence of my thesis on 6th December last year.
• I spent 6 to 7 months reading job advertisements, writing applications, having interviews… and finally found a job as trainee at Bombardier Transportation.
• Well, those seem to be the most important points but there was more: some “minor” things which nonetheless made an impact on me, some very personal things I would not write about on a blog, so many experiences (good an also bad ones)…

I don’t want to get too sentimental now. All in all I would call it a very good year and one I won’t forget.

Today I also would like to tell you the story behind the name of my blog. Some weeks before I went to Mexico I read a newspaper article about a little town on Baja California where the following statue can be found.


In front of it there is a plate with the words you can read in the orange box on the right. This is my translation:

The old man… and the sea
I have a paper boat
Made of a page
On which I wrote my dreams.
It has no anchor and no hawsers
I want to travel with it
From the seven seas to the eighth one
Where I know I’ll land in the designated port
Has somebody seen shine the light of its lighthouse?

Well, I think it helps sometimes...

Please count

The top three (so far) of the last Paper Boat Challenge are:

1. Vanessa - 200 points (I really wonder how you did that. You must have a lot of free time, just kidding!)
2. Michael - 169 points (? I don't know if you continued after your last comment. Probably you had enough;-)
3. Dana - 154 points (I guess you like understatements. You must have recognized some more than the car labels.)

If you are curious what is missing in your version: here is Vanessa's LogoSolution.xls (1.3 MB)

Tanks for your nice idea, Vanessa.

Thanks to all who participated (or tried to participate).

Paper Boat Challenge: April

The new Challenge is hidden in the file Logos.xls (1 MB)
(You can download it and work on it on your computer.)

It's a test how good you know logos which are more or less famous. I have to be honest and tell you that on my first trial I didn't even manage half of them. I know some more by now. Well, have a trial and let me know how many points you've got until next Monday (that should be 9th April). Please, DON'T SEND ME YOUR FILES! I believe in your honesty.

Note: This Paper Boat Challenge was Vanessa's idea. She sent me the file and proposed it as the new Challenge. The creator's mother tongue was Spanish, too, so there might be some problems with Spanish expressions (although there are few). Take it as an extra challenge. I can tell you that Red Cross is Cruz Roja and UNO is ONU but with the rest I'm helpless, too.

Have a lot of fun!