It remains unclear whether the new government plans to offset any budget cuts in the higher education sector through the planned introduction of tuition fees – as is the case in Baden-Württemberg. There, the additional revenue is intended to benefit all universities in order to maintain the stability of their budgets. If no cuts to the higher education budget are planned in North Rhine-Westphalia that would affect all universities, then it must go without saying that the revenue from tuition fees paid by international students should also go directly to those universities which, by providing better support and a comprehensive range of English-language courses – at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, 75 per cent of teaching is delivered in English – face different quantitative and qualitative demands compared to a university without an international focus and with only a small number of non-EU students. Currently, 41 per cent of students enrolled at Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences come from non-EU countries.
If German universities wish to continue their internationalisation – and academia is and remains conceivable and successful only on an international scale – then they must also be able to invite talented students from all over the world to study in Germany, regardless of their parents’ income. It must therefore be a matter of course that students in need but with talent can continue to come to Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences or other universities in North Rhine-Westphalia to study. However, North Rhine-Westphalia currently lacks
a.) a functioning scholarship system that gives priority to social criteria (which is not the case with the (nationwide) Germany Scholarship) and
b.) a systematic means in Germany of reliably and swiftly assessing the financial needs of students from non-EU countries. It is unlikely that the general category ‘originating from a developing country’ will be sufficient to make the necessary distinctions in this regard.
Given the effort involved in gathering information, assessing, selecting and supporting these new procedures – which have yet to be established – the Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences received over 5,700 applications from non-EU countries for the 2016/17 winter semester – must not be placed on the universities, which strive for openness to the world and international scholarship and are now having their activities restricted by a new, enormous administrative burden.
Furthermore, a vibrant academic system depends on exchange and cooperation remaining possible across all borders; consequently, neither exchange nor cooperation agreements with foreign universities, nor double or dual degrees, can or should be affected. It must also go without saying that currently enrolled non-EU students must be granted ‘grandfathering’ rights.
