Abgeschlossen

After five and a half years, 24 grey hairs, a looming HECS debt and a crease between my eyebrows that I blame entirely on Corporations Law, my undergraduate degree is complete.

In Australia, half a decade is a long time for an education. But in Berlin, the word on the streets (i.e. statistically unverified information, most likely heard in a pub) is that the average graduation age is 30. There’s not that pressure to suit up and make something of your career by the time your wisdom teeth are through. Education is meant to be a long and winding road – you’re actively encouraged to take many jaunts into the bordering hedges/rosebushes along the way.

Apart from the, sigh, burden on the taxpayers, I can’t see anything wrong with this system. While it may take longer for students to “grow up” - tick the boxes on the way to adulthood (job, mortgage, partner, promotion, children, death etc) by the time they roll out the other end of the education system they’re certainly more rounded, with a clearer idea of what they want in the long term. I think this is what education should be about – less of this customer-orientated, short-sighted focus on exams, more emphasis on the education that lies outside the lecture theatre.

But my experience of the teaching in German universities has actually been pretty disappointing. There are many extenuating circumstances: I didn’t study any law classes in German, the subjects were all optional and results weren’t matters of life or death, and as they were all aimed at English-as-second-language crowd (Erasmus students and Germans needing certain credits) the reading was minimal and expectations low.

But the content was dry and poorly taught. One lecturer read his summarised notes from a legal commentary, heading by heading. Class participation from anyone other than native English speakers was rare. Mostly, there was no set textbook and scarcely any internet resources – if you missed a class, you could pretty much fail a quarter of the exam.

But I definitely have some souvenirs to take back to Australia. I’ve learnt the nuts and bolts of Jewish Law and could have a fair crack at interpreting the Midrash Halakah or the Talmud if required. I’ve come to terms with the centrality of the concept of “fundamental rights” which in Europe pervades every area of law and gives any mildly interested basket case a cause of action. I know the punchiest parts of the Hague and Geneva Conventions and the US Constitution.

And if I’d stayed in Australia, I have no doubt that I would have had another stressful, boring and blinkered semester busting my ass over marks in boring and stressful law subjects. Even if it hasn’t been perfect, being here has been worth it just because of that.