The number of German students enrolling in foreign universities, particularly the Netherlands has meanwhile continued to rise. Tuition fees in the Netherlands are 3 times higher. But there often is no 'numerus clausus' and the quality of education is better, or so many Germans at least seem to think.

Over 14,000 of them now. And, of course, they are the uppper(/-)middle class kids whose parents can afford it.

The issue is of course that the money (1000 EUR/Y) is not being used to invest more in higher education, but rather to plug holes in the budget. It's an aftereffect of the Schröder reforms which burdened state budgets.

I don't know what the current state of the German federalism reform is. But higher education needs to be taken completely out of the hands of the states as soon as possible.