German Lessons

Employers in America are having a crisis in confidence when it comes to college graduates and their preparation for the workplace. The latest Gallup poll shows only 11 percent of U.S. business leaders ‘strongly agree’ college graduates have the skills they need to succeed. That’s why our On Campus team traveled to Germany, where a different approach to higher education is yielding strong results.

In the final part of our series on German higher education, WGBH's On Campus reports on Germany’s tracking system, where kids are divided up by ability at a young age. The system seems to work well in Germany, but would face strong opposition in the United States.

Despite the high cost of college in this country, most Americans will choose to go to school here. But there is a growing number of students who are getting their degrees in other countries, like Germany, where their taxpayers pick up the tab. WGBH's On Campus team recently traveled to Cologne to explore this higher ed defection, and the implications for the United States.

In Germany, Europe's leading economy, taxpayers fully subsidize the cost of college. Our search to understand how German universities keep costs down and quality up begins in the Rhineland.