5 ms·

Source? OECD put it at 27% in 2011[1]. If that number is 38% today, then over 2 million Germans earned post-secondary degrees in the last 4 years. 1: http://en

Source? OECD put it at 27% in 2011[1]. If that number is 38% today, then over 2 million Germans earned post-secondary degrees in the last 4 years. 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_25%E2%80%9334_year_olds_having_a_tertiary_education_degree http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_25%E2%80%9...

creshal 12y ago
The Meisterbrief wasn't considered a tertiary degree until 2013, I assume this distorts the statistics.
- doyoulikeworms 12y ago
  Ah, that makes sense. It's funny, because some Americans grumble about the lack of focus on vocational training and trades, while OP was grumbling about the lack of breadth and liberal education in Germany. The grass is always greener.
  - creshal 12y ago
    > while OP was grumbling about the lack of breadth and liberal education in Germany. Yeah, I've no idea where that's supposed to come from. The only area where I'd consider the education to be narrow is at universities – and there it's by design, because after 13 years of breadth-first education in the Gymnasium (mandatory three languages, music, sports, arts, chemistry, philosophy/theology, physics, maths, political education, history, computer science, …) you should be able to pick a specialization without turning into a drooling retard.
    - doyoulikeworms 12y ago
      Well, I don't know anything about Gymnasium, but it doesn't sound very different from K-12 compulsory education in California. Except the many languages and computer science-- children learn to program in Germany? That's amazing. I don't think the average high school-educated American is a drooling retard (contrary to popular belief...), but the onerous General Education requirements of bachelor's degrees provide additional breadth of knowledge.
      - creshal 12y ago
        > Except the many languages Learning multiple languages is a necessity in Europe, it's handled similarly in the surrounding countries. > and computer science-- children learn to program in Germany? The basic courses don't get further than Excel macros, but in the extended courses it's fairly solid (data structures, algorithms, multithreading even back before multi core CPUs were a thing, …). > but the onerous General Education requirements of bachelor's degrees provide additional breadth of knowledge. That seems to be the difference, then. Our bachelor degrees are already limited to domain-specific knowledge; you're supposed to do several degrees if you want to further broaden your horizon (arguably not entirely unreasonable if it's free).
        eru 12y ago
        Computer science education seems to vary a lot between high schools. It basically depends on how good your teacher is. (Each state also has an official curriculum.)

creshal 12y ago

The Meisterbrief wasn't considered a tertiary degree until 2013, I assume this distorts the statistics.

doyoulikeworms 12y ago
Ah, that makes sense. It's funny, because some Americans grumble about the lack of focus on vocational training and trades, while OP was grumbling about the lack of breadth and liberal education in Germany. The grass is always greener.
- creshal 12y ago
  > while OP was grumbling about the lack of breadth and liberal education in Germany. Yeah, I've no idea where that's supposed to come from. The only area where I'd consider the education to be narrow is at universities – and there it's by design, because after 13 years of breadth-first education in the Gymnasium (mandatory three languages, music, sports, arts, chemistry, philosophy/theology, physics, maths, political education, history, computer science, …) you should be able to pick a specialization without turning into a drooling retard.
  - doyoulikeworms 12y ago
    Well, I don't know anything about Gymnasium, but it doesn't sound very different from K-12 compulsory education in California. Except the many languages and computer science-- children learn to program in Germany? That's amazing. I don't think the average high school-educated American is a drooling retard (contrary to popular belief...), but the onerous General Education requirements of bachelor's degrees provide additional breadth of knowledge.
    - creshal 12y ago
      > Except the many languages Learning multiple languages is a necessity in Europe, it's handled similarly in the surrounding countries. > and computer science-- children learn to program in Germany? The basic courses don't get further than Excel macros, but in the extended courses it's fairly solid (data structures, algorithms, multithreading even back before multi core CPUs were a thing, …). > but the onerous General Education requirements of bachelor's degrees provide additional breadth of knowledge. That seems to be the difference, then. Our bachelor degrees are already limited to domain-specific knowledge; you're supposed to do several degrees if you want to further broaden your horizon (arguably not entirely unreasonable if it's free).
      - eru 12y ago
        Computer science education seems to vary a lot between high schools. It basically depends on how good your teacher is. (Each state also has an official curriculum.)