In the wake of #IchBinHanna, here's my pessimistic take on higher education. I have gone through it as an undergrad and grad student for 3 years each, worked on a PhD for 1.5 years, and now have teaching duty as permanent administrative staff. These are my personal views. 1/7 The university system in Germany has a perverse incentive structure for all involved.

Let us start with the universities: They are supposed to successfully educate people and create new knowledge, but they get funding proportional to the number of students who get a diploma. 2/7