49 replies to this topic

[Hum]

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.

source

[jnelsoninjax]

So the uni is suing him because he finished too fast? What's next suing for taking too long to complete the courses?

[thatguyandrew1992]

Are they out of their minds?

[Hum]

Greed is alive & well in Germany

[neufuse]

this sounds so much like one of those stories everyone in the world would of said "Only in corporate greed america where you have to pay for school!" but oh wait, its not! it's in Germany!

[Ryoken]

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.

[neufuse]

Ryoken, on 04 July 2012 - 17:49, said:

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

[Hum]

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

[ILikeTobacco]

jnelsoninjax, on 04 July 2012 - 16:51, said:

So the uni is suing him because he finished too fast? What's next suing for taking too long to complete the courses?

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

[neufuse]

Hum, on 04 July 2012 - 17:52, said:

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

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

[neufuse]

ILikeTobacco, on 04 July 2012 - 17:59, said:

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

[DocM]

thatguyandrew1992, on 04 July 2012 - 16:53, said:

Are they out of their minds?

Apparently. In many US uni's he'd be used as an advertisement.

[M_Lyons10]

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...

[roadwarrior]

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

[roadwarrior]

M_Lyons10, on 05 July 2012 - 14:25, said:

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.