Tuition fees / socialized education

[Clawg]

In germany university students currently have to pay about 200$ per year to the university ("free" education). This basically covers only some of the administration costs, the main source of income of the universities is the government and private industry. The actual costs for the university of a single student is about 10000$ per year (depending on the subject, it's about 40000$ in medicine and 5000$ in economics). In addition some students (not me) receive support if their parents don't have enough income to support the student (about 7000$ per year, only half of the money has to be paid back).

Now the government is going to propose tuition fees of 1000$ per year (that number will probably rise) and students rallying against it proposing a boycott (demanding the "right" to study etc. ). The 'reason' given by the government is not that education is not free but that they are running out of money and students have a relatively weak lobby. And the students seem to ignore the fact that when they demonstrate 'against' a tuition fee they actually demonstrate 'for' forcing others to pay for their education.

Now, I'm not sure where I should position myself here. I certainly agree that students should pay for the education they receive. If I was on a private university I would not hesitate to pay the fee.

On the other hand (if I stay in germany) I will be heavily taxed in my future profession and the tuition fee won't get directly into the university's budget but will instead be used by the government to fill some holes in their budget.

So either I'll be an exploiter (putting up political pressure by boycotting the tuition fee will not 'improve' the situation but only force some other group to pay for me) or I'll get exploited myself. Thus I'm unhappy whether I pay or I don't pay.

Well, the fee is not really a big issue for me as I'm near the end of my studies (I'd have to pay for 1-2 years) but the question concerns me on principle.

The third alternative - privatizing the universities and reducing taxes - seems to be neither popular with the students (still a fee to pay, no 'free' education) nor the government (less control, less taxes). What a surprise

What do you think?