I hate hate hate the Universität Hamburg

[mothwing]

So they introduced tuition fees this semester: €500.

So there is the additional fee for the ticket, etc. That used to be around €156, in the good old days, does anyone remember those?
A few years ago, those were raised (and we had to pay an additional €50. This was of course greeted with an outcry and a threat that anyone not able to pay would not be readmitted for the next semester.).The reason they gave for the introduction of the raise was that it was an added administrative fee. (To be fair, they could really do with the money. Most of the people working there are complete idiots, maybe more money would attract people who can actually read).

In addition to that, those additional fee has been raised gradually, always for a few euros, and next semester we'll have to pay another ten Euroes, which gives us €242 additional fees PLUS €500 tuition fees = €742.

So, when I started my course it used to be €156, and now it's €742.

Slight difference, no?

That they raised the bloody additional fees the semester we've got to pay tuition fees is absolutely LUDICROUS.

It's obvious that they're going to raise them until we've got to pay €1000 per semester, but even with the €500 there are so many students who have to end their course of studies, and there are no ways of really funding your course of studies. The credits they planned to introduce don't really work for everybody, and our state student support system which never really work that well in the first place doesn't even take the fees into account as far as I know.

In Glasgow, I wouldn't even have MINDED paying the fees because everything was just ... better, and I didn't even have to.
It is also an open secret that close to NOTHING will change after these fees have been paid because they don't go to the department but are used God only knows were.

This place just SUCKS.

Comments

[lordhellebore]

That used to be around €156, in the good old days, does anyone remember those?

Yes, we started together, remember? € 156,- was such a gooooooooood number. *sigh*

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

And it was so much more appropriate for the teaching quality. And it's become WORSE.

[lordhellebore]

I know... Btw., I do not have time for lunch on Wednesday, 12:00 as I mistakenly said in another comment.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Oooh. :(

Hmm... I'm meeting angie_21_237 for lunch tomorrow at twelve, but are you at the Uni on Monday?

[lordhellebore]

Yes, but no time.

Mo: 10-16
Di: 10-12, 14-16
Mi: 10-14
Do: ---
Fr: no time

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Whoa, I don't even have lessons on Friday. Seems like most of your courses are there!

How about 1pm on Tuesday?

[lordhellebore]

OKay, sounds good. And well, on Friday, I have 10-14, but I either have to run home and get Hannah, or am meeting somebody else.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Oh, okay, see you on Tuesday, then! :)

[lordhellebore]

EEEK!! I have class from 13-16 tomorrow! Either meeting at 12 or not at all! *stupid me!*

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Nuuh! I haven't managed to finished my transcript for class later on today, so maybe next week, at twelve?

[lordhellebore]

Okay :)

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaaawesome. :)

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Ahhh, here it is. :)

Are we still going to meet up tomorrow at twelve?

*checks watch* Today at twelve? :)

[lordhellebore]

Yes, of course! :)

[rizardofoz.livejournal.com]

€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€€ (alternating between different forms of currency)

It's all they want.

It's universal.

Sadly. :(

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Yup. It is. Sadly.

[dstroyrofworlds.livejournal.com]

*points up* He's right.
And I bet that I don't see any of the fees being used in a way that I'd call productive and that about half of them end somewhere, in a distant land nobody has yet found, where beaurocracy is a God and money is the offering and there are also living a lot of holes that want to be fed...but no money ever returns from there.

I am SOOO happy that my parents are able to pay for my studies. They are not able to do it without any planing or worries, but they are able to. The special "student loans" they created for those who can not pay, scared the hell out of me. I. don't. do. debt.
No way. I'd have rather given up studying, learnt a job, worked for a while and then started studying again when I have the money, my bf earns something, too, and I can choose ANY subject I want to because I have at least 6 waiting semesters already.
Still seems to be a good plan, especially since I am so unhappy with studying currently - but I am afraid they will raise the fees on 1000€/semester soon which I'd never be able to afford, no matter how long and how much I work beforehand.

Damn, I hate this country.
(reason #230985354396 to go away....)

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Yup, I'm scared of the loans as well. Especially looking at the sheer AMOUNTS people end up with. If you're not a mature student in Scotland (no fees due to SAAS, no graduate endowment due to being a mature student. It's awesome), that is.

It sucks especially for those who don't get Bafög, whose parents can't support them and who can't really afford the fees with what they earn while working - or for the Bachelor students who just CAN'T work at the same time as study because of those crazy time tables.

Yip. Definitely another reason to go away. The scary thing - I don't even know who's responsible for e.g. determining the sizes of the courses, because once more, everyone says it's someone else. It's not the professors, it's not the head of department, but then, who is it?
I could shoot them.

[dstroyrofworlds.livejournal.com]

Yup, I'm scared of the loans as well. Especially looking at the sheer AMOUNTS people end up with.
That is what scares me the most. And some kind of egoism (healthy egoism?) prevents me from doing dept of that kind: Imagine having studied, got your diploma, M.A. or Bachelor and then getting a job. Finally you are free. Free to come home and don't have to continue working because a summary or whatever is due the next day, and also free to travel, buy things, go out often, buy really GOOD clothes and have a hobby that costs a bit more than renting a book from the library....and you are also free to pay of your debt of, what, 5,000 bucks or more you used for your studies?
I bet, this will demolish a lot of the other "frees" I listed.
Perhaps it doesn't and I am just very ignorant, too little informed and pessimistic. But I am also afraid, horribly afraid of that number and also way too "egoistical" to accept that I will, as soon as I start working, have to work for others.

I don't get BaFög either. I am not yet sitting in that "gap" in which the people are trapped who can not pay but are not supported either. But I am close to it and I hope I will, after this semester of "finding myself", 1) know for sure what I want to do, 2) be able to really DO it and 3) end it soon and disencumber my parents and earn my own money.


You know, concerning the number of admitted people in courses.
It seems to me as if the question-of-fault is once again ruining everything. Everybody in this world seems to think and feel in "fault-cathegories" and thus everybody just says "it's not m
y fault, go to xy and ask them" instead of seeing that there are grievances and saying "I am not responsible for it but I see that there has to be done something on it. Please go to XY and tell him about it and let me know how it went. If it does not help, I will see what I can do."
Nobody seems to want to help or feel as if it was a good thing to help making things better because everybody fears that this would result in 1) loads of additional work they don't have to do and 2) will be seen as some kind of "confession of guilt".
Carzy, isn't it? What do you think about that theory?
I think I got it but maybe I only try to explain things to myself that I can't really understand the way I am...

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that "fault" thinking drives me insane as well. I know exactly what you mean! And it's not as though am coming with a moral reproach or anything, I just want to know the reason why the bloody courses are that big. I don't want to tell someone that their immortal souls are endangered or something. This country has a Schuldkomplex. For me, "fault" means something like "responsibility" and doesn't have any moral strings attached, but everyone gets seriously edgy when I use it, so I've taken to use "responsible" instead to try and go around the complex. Doesn't work. :(

Definitely more than 5,000. A friend who studied abroad had a debt of about 30,000 - tuition fees, rent, money for living... great stuff. I'd rather not study, and I'd rather die than not study.

[dstroyrofworlds.livejournal.com]

30,000....no. way.

I guess people are just not able to see a difference between being responsible and having fault anymore. Or rather: They know the difference but the fact is that whoever is "responsible" as in being major and cognizant also usually is responsible in the sense of accountable, answerable and being held liable for.

Peole just LOVE it to be taken seriously and to be seen as grown-up and mature and therfore also major and cognizant and they love it even more when they somebody wants them to do something because they seem to be "the person" for doing it.
BUT nobody likes, at all, to accept that with every ounce of being grown-up and major and "the person to do something" they are also responsibley and being held liable for their own actions.

People in this country seem to fear it very much.
Sadly, this "pestilence" also affected me but I see it and try to work against it. I am just afraid of making mistakes and letting people down, not more.

Others however are...well, they want to be OH-SO grown-up and being treated like one of the permium adults and mature people the world has ever seen and when they then do a mistake or act up they refuse to accept that they should be in only 1% responsible for anything.
And they often don't do that out of the fear of letting people down but they really believe that they are NOT to be held responsible at all. They REALLY BELIEVE. Can you imagine that?!? ARRRGH!

[moonystone.livejournal.com]

It makes me so sick.

Yesterday, the professor didn't turn up for his lecture without notice of given reason. And I looked at the full room and the empty spot up front and thought about how we all have to pay 500€ for nothing in return.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

WTF??? That's rich.

The great thing about stuff like that is that we can't even complain. I mean - seriously, who to?
"Professor Greineeeeer, your colleague (and good friend) did not come to class yesterday!!! Do something to punish them."

Would work. Uh-hu.

[moonystone.livejournal.com]

Oh, Greiner is one who would listen. When he found out that the newbies didn't have an introductory lecture in the first week because the professor (Rodenberg) was still in Vietnam helping some uni there, he was absolutely livid!

But that professor who didn't turn up was a history guy I haven't heard of yet :( Let's hope he'll remember his lecture next week.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

WTF? I'd have been livid about that as a newbie. But why didn't anyone know about that?

It can't be that hard to tell people when you'll be back in the country, for heaven's sake.

[moonystone.livejournal.com]

They could've known, it's been announced on the homepage for some time beforehand. Still sucks, though, as the whole lesson plan has to be delayed now and the last topic probably won't be attended.
Actually, no one turned up a week later because they thought the first time didn't take place. I assume they just applied for all courses in case they didn't get a place in one of them. Stupid Stine.

[duckygirlrocks.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I'm so sorry! But Kevy's right, all they want is thy money. *SIGH*

Anyway, *HUGS* and hope it gets better.

[mothwing.livejournal.com]

*HUGS*

I hope it will.

What drives me insane is that other universities manage to even APPEAR to be seriously considering to do something productive with our money. I don't know if they will and I doubt it, but they even make the effort to pretend they will, making it possible to believe that they MIGHT.

Here, it's business as usual. The strange thing is that most departments (except for mine) have started planning as though they already had received the fees, therefore there are a few extra sessions, extra workshops, that kind of thing. Mine did not even offer more courses, although the fees of two students alone would be more than enough to offer the same course twice.