Action against tuition abgebügelt.

The tuition fees in North Rhine-Westphalia are no insurmountable barrier for prospective students and violated it is not against the UN Social Pact. That is the Federal Administrative Court and a plea of Paderborn students dismissed.

 

Really, it was not surprising: students from the University of Paderborn, with their lawsuit against general tuition failed. The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig ruled that the fees did not infringe the constitutionally guaranteed principle of free work and study election violated.

DDP
Pierre Schade of Paderborn Asta: The application failed

The campus toll of $ 500 per semester is therefore legally - at least in form, how the fee system in North Rhine-Westphalia is designed, namely, the ability to record loans.

The tuition fees violated the judge's view, neither the Constitution nor international law against the major UN social pact. That was the accusation of Paderborn students. The fees were not only socially unjust, they argued, but not with the Constitution and the UN Social Pact.

Interest burden is acceptable, according to court

Asta had sued on behalf of a student of economics, represented by attorney William Achelpöhler who has several students in similar cases considered. The social pact was regulated that a university solely on the candidate's qualifications of a study should be made subject, the lawyer said: "There's just no qualifications and finances, there is only qualifications." In addition to expectations fees against the Article 12 of the Basic Law, to free choice of employment.

TUITION FEES

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The court saw the different - and so decided like other judges before,
last in Baden-Württemberg. Franz Bardenhewer, Presiding Judge of the 6th Senate in Leipzig, did the question in the space, whether the tuition is not a "social barrier" would be built. The problem would be if the school fees of a study would be discouraged.

But the court ultimately decided, because poorer students in North Rhine-Westphalia may obtain a loan, which it only after the completion of their studies to pay back the barriers are low enough.

Due to the interest created by such loans are, could have a "considerable burden for the affected students showed," says the verdict. The right to equality does not call that "complications" which taxes would be through study, through social support measures fully compensate "them. It must only ensure that the tuition is not "too insurmountable social barriers" are. These requirements would be tuition fees loan and the interest rate regime in North Rhine-Westphalia justice, states the decision, the interest burden is "even more" acceptable.

Perhaps the case still landed in Karlsruhe

"That is regrettable. We would have obviously preferred a different result," said the Paderborner Asta chairman Pierre-pity after the verdict was delivered. Achelpöhler lawyer had announced that if necessary, before the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe to want to draw. There was the topic
2005 Topic Studiengebühren ready. However, the supreme judge ruled in Karlsruhe only that a ban on tuition fees was not the Constitution. The presiding judge then dismissed but explicitly pointed out, not always on the admissibility of tuition decided to have.

Now the current ruling should only be reviewed Achelpöhler lawyer said, "basically we want to exhaust all possibilities." However: Even in the earlier students had the plaintiff not successful.

North Rhine-Westphalia's Minister of Science Andreas Pinkwart (FDP) said after the verdict in his state would be no one for financial reasons prevented from further studies. "For one, because everyone can choose whether his tuition fee immediately or after admission paid profession. On the other hand, because the vast majority of recipients of student loans, tuition fees in fact, completely free," said Pinkwart. According to his ministry are now collecting 29 of 33 public universities in North Rhine-Westphalia tuition fees of up to 500 euros per semester. 2008 came in this way, 270 million euros.

Tuition fees of up to 500 euros per semester since 2006/2007 in six Länder collected. Hesse has vigorously disputed the charges removed.

Whether the fees deter potential students, is hotly debated: According to a study by the Higher Education Information System (HIS), the Federal Ministry of Education by mid-October
was kept under wraps, this sets the context but close. This means that 18,000 graduates of the 2006 through fees from student can hold. Another result of the study: children who do not come from academic families, leave their education more because of the impending charges unused as children whose parents have already attended a university.