Observations on Germany #10

It was pointed out to me that I promised to report on German academic life and not just cultural ephemera, so Lederhosen aside, here's a more substantive thought: the German higher education system has just finished bringing in a sea change, whereby the old Magister system (where everyone got something roughly equivalent to the MA and there was no lower degree than that) is being replaced with a much quicker 3 year BA system. This is actually what I'm used to from England, but I still worry about it especially when it is combined with the equally new system of an Abitur (=high school degree, roughly) that takes one year less to complete. It all means that German universities are sending finished products out with many fewer years of education than previously; this seems a shame. It will save costs, though, and if this is the only way to avoid bringing in the ruinous tuition fees of the UK (and USA) then that is worth it.