The Cost of a Dream: Indian Students in Germany
https://www.dw.com/en/the-cost-of-a-dream-indian-students-in-germany/a-76455891
Posted by Krankenitrate
The Cost of a Dream: Indian Students in Germany
https://www.dw.com/en/the-cost-of-a-dream-indian-students-in-germany/a-76455891
Posted by Krankenitrate
24 Comments
Yeah well thats the reality if you use one of those agencies and a private university.
Their own fault really.
If they did some research they would realize that 1) private unis + agencies are a scam 2) their chances of finding a job after they graduated is slim to none because we don’t have a shortage of CS/Business/Engineering graduates. We need care takers etc, people who are doing labor intensive jobs.
Even graduating from public universities chances of finding a job in the field they are studying for is very very low. So most will do Wolt/Flink/Amazon warehouses and eventually return home with serious debt.
They have to understand that the language barrier (+ cultural barrier as well) is much higher than in countries like Canada/Ireland/UK/Australia.
I do feel a little bad for them because most will have their dream of a cushy job + nice life in a Western country absolutely crushed
They all are joining International Universities (IUs) and these universities are almost a scam. They offer online course at a very high price and students don’t have to come to campus which put their visa status in limbo and a judge has ruled that they can be deported if they can study from their home countries. Most of these students have sub-standard bachelors or college degrees which will not be accepted in any public universities and that is where IUs prey on them via visa agents in India (and other countries). Back in my time, I was offered a full first year scholarship at IU Bremen but next year the fee was 12k Euros, I consulted the the people I know already studying in Germany and all of them warned me against going to IU.
I am from India, trust me when I say this, there are literally agencies just to somehow manipulate people to apply only to private universities in Germany. These people are usually the ones who don’t research anything at all, blindly come to berlin and their bubble bursts when they arrive. Like, literally, Germany is known for their free/cheap public universities worldwide, if you’re too lazy to research and go to a scammy private university paying thousands of euros as fees then that’s on you.
The crux of the problem is the angecy and agent culture in India, everyone just wants to pay money and get things to done, without actually doing their own research.
This creates the problem these students are facing now, if they had to done proper research and applied themselves without going through an agent who probabaly gets huge kickbacks for each student they’d be in a much better place.
I don’t think their absolute fault, it’s a general problem in India, most people think money solves all problems, and any degree from a western country would be great. The general mindset and attitude needs to change too
The tuition fees are still very affordable in comparison to UK, Australia etc.
Which leads to the Indian lower middle class being attracted to Germany.
It’s a problem of the demographic above everything else.
I have many Indian colleagues who used the private universities as entry ticket into Germany and it worked out fine for them. But they had a strong education in India already.
They are being scammed mainly by their fellow countrymen as agents/agencies selling unrealistic dreams; and once they get here they are further scammed again by their fellow countrymen who are managing these subcontracting firms for delivery riders.
The actual video link [https://www.dw.com/en/reporter-cost-of-a-dream-indian-students-in-germany/video-76466179](https://www.dw.com/en/reporter-cost-of-a-dream-indian-students-in-germany/video-76466179) (the reddit style of not clicking the link still going strong i c )
Tldr: Enrolled in Private universities – self sabotaging
Let me guess: foreign students believe in the promise of easy jobs without German knowledge after graduation because “Germany needs foreign workers” by the agencies, paid them thousands of dollars loaned money for all kinds of services including language, polishing CVs, recommendation letters but are now stuck with a shit degree and shit jobs with low pay?
The lack of empathy in this comment section is kind of jarring.
You have to remember, India is an incredibly crowded cutthroat and competitive country. People there understandably want to do whatever they can to give them the edge, because in many cases it’s the only way to survive.
It’s very easy to mock or deride the choices people make in desperate circumstances from a position of privilege.
In my view it’s the agencies that pry on this desperation that deserve criticism, not the students.
Anyway, remember to tip your Wolt riders folks!
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All Indians I know that came here via the “official” way of applying by themselves to a regular public university worked hard and are doing well.
All the ones that went to IU etc. and paid private “agents” – not so much.
Yeah, after being active on r/studying_in_germany r/Studium and here for a couple of years, its literally their fault.
Literally a 5-Minute research will tell you that most private universities in Germany are degree mills, that the job market is absolutely brutal, and that HR will filter your application out immediately if you went to certain “universities”
The reality is this. I have had people ask me which university to join, with a list of several private universities. Every time I tell them to avoid private universities, they think I am ‘gatekeeping Germany’ or some such nonsense and get upset. People are willing to get something by hook or crook if they’ve made up their mind to move abroad. At this point, it is a failing of the government even providing visas for these people after having seen hundreds or even thousands of prospective students suffer like this.
There is a lot of talk about the migrating migrant immigrants and how they’re going to STOP!!111!!!111!!11 all of them dead in their tracks, just to hate on refugees to gain political points, but in reality they are incapable of even dealing with such simple things, it feels like.
The majority of students find themselves in this place, overcome the nightmare of a blocked account, and believe that they have escaped the system. They haven’t. It was only the tutorial level.
The actual harm is done silently, within the 12-18 months. You start a fintech because it is quick and English-speaking – absolutely understandable. However, many of these reports do not report to SCHUFA, or do so in a manner that would hardly move the needle. So as you go about your business, paying rent, being an adult responsible citizen you are building nothing. Your credit profile remains clean. And a blank profile is not neutral in Germany. It’s a red flag.
I refer to it as the Invisible Expat Tax. It is no fee that anybody charges you. It is what you lose the additional deposit landlords require due to your unscoreability, the offers that you fail to win due to the contracts, the years it will take to rebuild something that you could have been doing on day one had you just known what bank to open.
I have witnessed smart and well-prepared students being caught off guard by this after they do all the other things correctly. The reason Visa sorted, university enrolled, blocked account opened and remained financially invisible two years later is that the first account they opened was virtually a SCHUFA dead end.
I have taken a good deal of time tracking out these dead ends of finance, of which newcomers are specially the dead ends, that lead you down the wrong road, and those that lead you up the right road. In case you want to avoid making the same mistakes that other people have done, my profile may spare you some agony.
I don’t mind students from India just dont come in a high volume and we are all fine.
To be fair, a lot of them come to Germany completely unprepared and unaware of the situation without having researched much on their own. I believe they are sold dreams and blindly believe that there are thousands of jobs just waiting for them in Germany when that’s absolutely not the case. The same applies to Canada for instance.
– Not doing your own research. With the availability of Internet and translation services, it is no longer an excuse to blindly trust an agency.
– US-centered expectations. In the USA, all universities cost money. So naturally, the cost of paid universities in Germany looks much lower than that of the US, making them more attractive. What the USA doesn’t have is a different main language, a different culture and other factors.
– The promise of studying in the English language creates a higher insentive to try and apply for those. German is not an easy language (but also not the hardest). Learning it just to study in it? That deters a lot of people.
– Again, the language and the culture are different. People come unprepared.
High tuition fees? Tuition is €0 in Germany…or am I missing something?
Their main goal either way is to get out of India and get a PR and ev a passport by any hook or crook! I don’t think they are suffering much.. it’s up to the host governments/countries to wisen up
I think even a simple Google search would tell anyone that these private universities are a scam. Keyword: Google search, self-sabotaging.
We should advertise around the world NOT to come here, crush those dreams in the first place, sorry world
but cheap labour for our cheap society