University Education in Germany
Universities in Germany are publicy funded. That means, taxpayers pay for it. The catch for international students is, that, if you stay in Germany and work here, you will repay that through your taxes. Furthermore, almost all programmes are taught in German. The German taxpayer doesn’t care that German might be a difficult language for foreigners to master. No one will do you the favour of switching the seminar language to English, just so you can understand something.
I once met an exchange student from Bangladesh. He wanted to study in Germany for a year (2 semesters). He came here without any German skills. His plan was to learn German in the first semester, while talking classes taught in English and then take German-taught classes in his second semester. Well, he wasted his first semester (at least when it comes to University classes), since there weren’t any English lectures in his field of study. I think this is something that many underestimate. Germany is proud of its academic tradition. We learn and teach in the language we know best. This comes very handy for us, since your native language is the language you can think best in. But it might be a huge disadvantage for any exchange student.
Universities offer what is strictly necessary to graduate.
No expensive sport programmes. There are University groups, in which students can work out. But we don’t have anything comparable to American college sports.
No expensive dormitory infrastructure. That is, almost no campus infrastructure. There are university buildings, of course, but they mostly serve for teaching (lecture halls, seminar rooms, offices, libary). Buildings/technical infrastructure can be quite old. No fancy, unnecessary stuff.
The libary is often not property of the University, but belongs to the city or state. The libary of TU Darmstadt, for example, is called “Universit?ts- und Landesbibliothek” (“University and State library”). It is not exclusivly for TU Darmstadt students, but for everyone (although, if you are not a member of the University, you will have to pay a small fee). So, you can have a nice modern library, but you have to share it. For example, with students who prepare for their high-school exit exams (“Abitur”) and do so in the libary because “they are so grown-up” (those are the worst).
Furthermore, the number of students per professor is much higher than in other countries. This is one of the reasons, why German universities are not that highly ranked in international rankings. But it makes teaching many students cheaper.
To say it bluntly: no one cares about you as a student. There is no hand-holding, you are thrown into cold water. Usually, you have a big lecture hall and someone who holds a lecture. If it is a technical subject, you usually have exercise groups which are held by more advanced students. Those are the ones, who handle the tutoring (usually, 2–3 semesters more advanced than you). You will not come in closer contact with a professor or the professor’s assistants until you write your Bachelor’s thesis. And even then, the contact is usually brief. Same pattern applies for master programs.
To sum it up:
Germany can afford it, because the taxpayer wants to. If you work in Germany after your graduation, you too will pay for it.
Universities are run cost-efficiently (at least they try to). Study programs are designed to please Germans (because they are the ones paying for it), internationals have to adjust to that.
No fancy stuff, unrelated to learning.University