Determinants of the Attitude Towards Tuition Fees – Results of Online-Surveys

In this thesis the question arose which determinants affect the attitude towards tuition fees. Two approaches within the Social Sciences can explain attitudes in general: the economic approach and the ideological approach. To apply these approaches to attitudes towards tuition fees, I used three online surveys, conducted at the Universities of Göttingen, Gießen and Trier. Previously the experience with tuition fees was seen as an important determinant of the attitu-de towards tuition fees which could not be confirmed in this thesis. It could be shown that primarily economic and ideological factors determine the attitude toward tuition fees. It appeared that the ideological or rather the political attitude had a strong influence on the attitude towards tuition fees. If students place themselves further right on the left-right scale they approve more of tuition fees than students on the left side of the scale. Voting intentions are also determinants of the attitude towards tuition fees. Students who would vote CDU/CSU or FDP see tuition fees more positively than students who would vote for SPD, the Green Party or the Left. The results indicate that the non-economic factors in every income situation play an important role with regard to the evaluation of tuition fees. No matter how well financially situated students are, the ideological attitude determines to a high degree the attitude towards tuition fees. At the beginning two theses were opposed, the privileging of the privileged and that tuition fees are an impediment for potential students from a weaker social background. The results and the state of research show that students from a weaker social background are not deterred by tuition fees and that at the same time the amount of students with an academic background in their families is high. With the abolition of tuition fees in Germany studying, which is still taken up mainly by adolescents with academic background, is not pro rata financed by their ( high-income ) parents, but by the state and is therefore tax funded. It can be stated that in Germany, where no tuition fees are charged, the already privileged are more privileged