University sues student who 'studied too fast'

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Hum

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A private German economics and business university is suing one of its students for lost income after he finished his Bachelors and Masters degrees in about a quarter of the normal time.

Marcel Pohl completed 60 examinations in 20 months, gaining a grade of 2.3, and was officially ex-matriculated in August 2011. Such a course usually takes 11 semesters, but he only needed three.

Now the Essen-based School of Economics and Management (FOM) want the 22-year-old to pay his fees up the end of 2011 - an extra ?3,000.

"When I got the lawsuit, I thought it couldn't be true," Pohl, who now works for a bank in Frankfurt, told the Bild newspaper. "Performance is supposed to be worth something."

Pohl completed his turbo degree by dividing up all the simultaneous lectures with two friends and then swapping notes. At the same time, he completed an apprenticeship in a bank.

"We didn't get any freebies, and we agreed our plans in advance with the school," Pohl said.

"We're always against slow students," said his lawyer Bernhard Kraas. "But when someone hurries and finishes early, suddenly he has to pay. That can't be right."

But the FOM argues that its fees are the total price for the studies, independent of how long the studies last. But if that it is the case, it remains unclear why they are only calling for a part of the cost for 11 semesters.

"We do not want to comment on the case before it has reached court," a university spokesman said.

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Ryoken

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It won't standup in court.. if for no other reason than the Uni was aware of it from the beginning. Plus they are the ones that LET him.. You can't just decide to take a exam, you need to be allowed too, the prof needs to give the credit.. so they were fine till after he finished.. ergo it's too late.

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Grand Master

neufuse Veteran

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It won't standup in court.. if for no other reason than the Uni was aware of it from the beginning. Plus they are the ones that LET him.. You can't just decide to take a exam, you need to be allowed too, the prof needs to give the credit.. so they were fine till after he finished.. ergo it's too late.

yeah really, where I went we could take a maximum 17.9 credits a semester with what we paid for tuition wise, anything over that we needed approval and we had to pay more for... there was no way to finish school without paying for the credits you took even if you did it in half the time

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neufuse Veteran

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Wouldn't a course be a one flat price ... ? They are here in the USA. :huh:

in the USA you pay per semester if you are a full time student, that gets you x number of credits per semester, then you pay a flat rate per credit over that.. most major universities here follow that rule, you'd think other countries would do it similar

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neufuse Veteran

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They already do that sort of. In my MBA, if you take longer than 6 years, you are not allowed to graduate.

yeah upper level degrees like masters, MBA (which is a masters program really) and PhD you have a set period to complete, if not tough luck, but under grad you can take a long time... heck you could go a year take 4 off take another 2yrs finish your last 1 a few years later.. as long as you meet the requirements when you graduate... because over time requirements do change

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M_Lyons10

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On the surface this sounds more than a little absurd, but do they not pay per credit over there? If that were the case it wouldn't matter how long he took to finish the course... I thought that's how most schools worked, but could be wrong...

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Southern Patriot

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On the surface this sounds more than a little absurd, but do they not pay per credit over there? If that were the case it wouldn't matter how long he took to finish the course... I thought that's how most schools worked, but could be wrong...

Exactly what I was thinking. We pay by credit hour here, so it doesn't matter if you take 20 credit-hours in one semester, or one credit-hour each semester for 20 semesters, you'd essentially pay the same price.

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Raa

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Wouldn't a course be a one flat price ... ? They are here in the USA. :huh:

Same here in Australia to my knowledge. You pay per course. Finish it in 1 week or 1 semester - but if you don't complete in a certain timeframe, you're required to pay again to complete it (if you wish)

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pickytech

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yeah upper level degrees like masters, MBA (which is a masters program really) and PhD you have a set period to complete, if not tough luck, but under grad you can take a long time... heck you could go a year take 4 off take another 2yrs finish your last 1 a few years later.. as long as you meet the requirements when you graduate... because over time requirements do change

Just to add to this, it also costs a different amount if you are not a full time student by taking less than 12 credits. They liked to bundle 12-18 credits (over costed extra) when I went through undergrad, and my master's was always pay-per-credits.

Unless they aren't using a typical 4.0 scale, a 2.3 GPA sounds pretty crappy anyway.

I was wondering the same thing. That's a smidge under a C+ average, which even with the short time would have him firmly under my company's "ignore" pile. Guess that might explain a lot about the banks though. Hopefully this is just a different grading scale.

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MtnDewCodeRedFreak

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My sister completed her master's degree program in Ed Admin in 2 and a half years. Hell I knew one girl who completed it in one academic year!

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mokthraka

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Just to add to this, it also costs a different amount if you are not a full time student by taking less than 12 credits. They liked to bundle 12-18 credits (over costed extra) when I went through undergrad, and my master's was always pay-per-credits.

I was wondering the same thing. That's a smidge under a C+ average, which even with the short time would have him firmly under my company's "ignore" pile. Guess that might explain a lot about the banks though. Hopefully this is just a different grading scale.

guess what. Companies dont give a damn what your gpa Is. They care you have.the degree.
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TokiToki

Posted
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yeah really, where I went we could take a maximum 17.9 credits a semester with what we paid for tuition wise, anything over that we needed approval and we had to pay more for... there was no way to finish school without paying for the credits you took even if you did it in half the time

Here in the University of California and California State University systems, although you needed administrative approval to register for more units, you didn't need to pay additional to the standard full time fee.

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neufuse Veteran

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guess what. Companies dont give a damn what your gpa Is. They care you have.the degree.

not really, if you are a first timer they do give a crap about your GPA... if you have worked in the field for x number of years then they no longer care and only care about your experience.. first time getting a job, they usually want to see transcripts to prove you completed the degree and how well you did... most places ask for sealed transcripts from a recent grad just so they know they were not tampered with or to be sent directly from the university/college to them

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ILikeTobacco

Posted
Posted

My sister completed her master's degree program in Ed Admin in 2 and a half years. Hell I knew one girl who completed it in one academic year!

So your sister was 6 months slow in doing her degree. Bachelors degree is 4 years with around 120 hours doing between 12-20 hours per semester. A masters degree is around 32 hours doing 6 to 9 hours per semester. Those are estimates based on going the average amount of classes per semester and what they expect it to take you. Doing a masters in a single year isn't that hard though. 12 hours, which is 4 classes per semester and then another 8 or 9 during the summer. If you don't work full time, it isn't unheard of. The average masters students, however, work full time unless they are law or med school students.
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