Students Strike

California, November 18, 2009: One thousand students on strike at University of California.

Germany, November 12, 2009: One hundred thousand students protesting on the streets of Germany.

Students all over the world are furious with their educational system. Constant changes and fees are being added to the tuition yearly and students are no longer able to pay for a higher education. Universities all around the world no longer care for the future and success of their students, but they are rather more concerned with how much money they can squeeze out of each student.

At the University of California, students are protesting against a proposed 32% increase of tuition and fees. With tuition fees already outrageous enough in America, a 32% increase would be absolutely unmanageable for nearly 75-85% of all students attending the University of California. Students would either need to transfer to another school or drop out and lose a chance to pursue a higher education. As hundreds of striking students storm into the school’s administration building, signs reading “stop cuts in education and research” as well as “Education only for the rich” are plenty.

“Education only for the rich”; is this what America has come down to? Each year tuition fees sneak up a few percent so that it is barely noticeable, however, with the current recession, everyone has learned to notice. It is becoming more and more obvious that with the American educational system, only the children born into rich families have the chance to become a part of the minimal 5% of successful and powerful people in America. Sure, America has some of the most prestigious Ivy Leagues in the world, but how many young middle class geniuses actually make it there? Even with scholarships, there will always be a fee to be paid because otherwise, the Universities would be losing money. With the exception of a few, most middle class students are forced to enter into an average University and seek an average degree. It is sad to see how much money can play a role in deciding who will become the few mighty famous ones that will become known for their power and wealth.

Although the increased tuition fees are the major issue of the strike in California, surprisingly, other issues such as library opening and closing times are also an issue at the University of California. Students’ claim that the library closes on Friday’s at 5pm and remains closed all day Saturday, denying students from studying for the upcoming finals. This is not only disrespectful towards the students, but it is also proof that the University does not care for its student’s success and future. It is an appalling thought that a university can make arrangements for a 32% increase in tuition fees, but then in return it could care less about the fact that students do not have a place to study for their final examinations. But as long as the money flows in, everything is good right? It would be expected that after students pay thousands of dollars to go to a university to receive a higher education that the university would at least be courteous enough to provide the students an essential place to study for finals.


However, it is not only in America that such anger and fury is spread through its population of students. Places such as Italy, Spain, Greece, and now Germany have seen the same outrage. In Germany over one hundred thousand students are marching the streets in protest of the increased tuition fees. In Germany and many other countries in Europe, universities never had tuition fees. It was believed that a higher education should be available to all. However, in the past 2 years, Universities began to charge a minimal fee for education. Although this fee was manageable, universities are now trying to raise these fees.

Although German students are angered by this, they are also concerned with the new system of having a Bachelor and Master Degree program like in America. A German student was interviewed by the German newspaper “Zeit” and claimed that “no one had a clear plan of how this system would be introduced. They simply left it up to politics and since all the other countries were applying it, German politicians decided that Germany should join as well. However, the proper funding for such a program was not available.” Material covered in 5-7 years, has now been crammed into a 4 year Bachelor program. Due to this, students are forced to learn almost double the information in a shorter period of time. Not only this, but the combination of shortening the time to complete a degree and not having enough funding to higher more professors also caused a greater student to teacher ratio. Students complain about the massive amounts of people in lecture halls. Through this conversion of systems and new tuition fees, it could be inferred that the American education system is now influencing Europe as well.

Although a universal education system would not be a bad thing, it would be essential that all universities develop a larger concern for their students’ well-being and that they are treated with higher respect. Students in America, and soon to be Europe, pay thousands of dollars and Euros to receive a higher education. Universities have begun to take advantage of its student population by focusing only on the money each student is worth. However, by the universal demonstration of disapproval by the many student protestors, universities should be begin to realize that each student who attends their university is there to become successful in the future. It would be much more essential and beneficial to both the individual universities reputations and the student’s futures if the education system focused more on the success rate of their students rather than the amount of money flowing in each year.

Jacqueline March
November 21, 2009
Blog # 3