University Sues Student For Graduating Early 232
"A student who attended a private German economics and business university is being sued by the school because he finished his degree too quickly. Marcel Pohl finished 60 exams in 20 months, completing 11 semesters worth of work in only 3. The school says it is due an extra €3,000 for lost income because, "its fees are the total price for the studies, independent of how long the studies last." "When I got the lawsuit, I thought it couldn't be true. Performance is supposed to be worth something," Pohl said.
A bit late methinks (Score:5, Insightful)
why not go all the way and say for X cash you get (Score:5, Insightful)
why not go all the way and say for X cash you get X degree.
As they don't seem to care about any ones Performance just the cash.
Now that's stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
Top 3 reasons why that was a stupid move:
1) You are attempting to sue a genius, your odds of winning are not exactly great.
2) You just wasted hundreds of thousands in free marketing opportunities. Instead of praising the student in the media (along with your University's name), you may now end up being hated in the media.
3) Punishing your own clients and making it public has never ammounted to a great business strategy.
Re:why not go all the way and say for X cash you g (Score:3, Insightful)
Then is it also safe to assume this "school" would have no problem with a student casually taking courses for 10 or 20 years? Of course not.
One would think they would be proud of such a motivated and capable student, but this so-called Business School is about to get their own expensive lesson in "The Streisand Effect."
Re:The Local (Score:2, Insightful)
Can you please stop posting articles from the Local? As I've explained in other threads...
This may surprise you, but nobody cares about what you've posted in other threads.
It seems to me... (Score:5, Insightful)
that you pay a university so they can pay rent, salaries of their professors and various other expenses necessary to actually have a university. A person who completed 11 semesters of work in 3 clearly didn't sit in classes (much), thereby not expending the time of instructors nor the space in the lecture halls. As an old room mate of mine used to do in university, he probably signed up for the class and went to the instructor on the first day of class and asked for the final exam.
I'm not sure what the university thinks they lost, aside from some obtuse reference to some sort of IP claim for the quality of the education they gave the guy, which clearly couldn't have been much, since he probably didn't attend classes.
Re:A bit late methinks (Score:5, Insightful)
Depending on the courses 18 hours is a lot. I finished my degree taking 15 hours and working full time. If I wasn't at school or work, I was at home studying or sleeping.
Re:A bit late methinks (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, this could be good.
If I fail exams and have to repeat a year or two, I don't have to pay extra for those years?
I bet that occurs far more often than people finishing early.
Re:Event Horizon of the Affordable Care Act (Score:2, Insightful)
Health insurance companies have to spend at least 80% of revenue on premiums.
I think you don't mean premiums - that's the revenue. I think you meant medical payments. So, given that ... The problem with this is that it's way too easy to juggle the books on this sort of requirement - especially for HMOs where the treatment is being performed by another subsidiary of a holding company. For example, the holding company can have the insurance company pay for records management to another company, which is owned by the holding company. The records management company can run at a 90% profit, charging the insurance company through the nose. It's a bit harder to hide the profits in the treatment side, but since typically each insurer has a different payment schedule with each clinic, the clinical side can charge the insurer an extra 5% above what it charges another insurer. So that 10% does not show up as profit to the insurer, but it does show up for the holding company. This gambit is common in many industries, and can be made so complex that it is impossible to know what or where the profits are.
Re:Business schools ... (Score:5, Insightful)
He wanted to bitch about America and it probably does not matter what the story is he was going to get in some America bashing.
What I'm bashing is the business class -- the new nobility -- and their hangers-on who cluster around them in hopes that someday they might get to sit at the high table, like the illiterate thugs back in Ye Badde Olde Dayes who called themselves "knights" and slavishly followed other illiterate thugs who happened to hold titles in hopes that someday they might earn the privilege of being one of those titled thugs themselves. The forms have changed; the mindset remains exactly the same. If I use America as an example, it's because I'm American and so the American variety is the one I'm most familiar with; the point of my post is that I'm saddened but not surprised that Germany has the same problem. It is, sadly, a mindset which knows no borders.
Re:A bit late methinks (Score:5, Insightful)
Apparently you can't read. I'll help you try again: "The schools says (...) "its fees are the total price for the studies, independent of how long the studies last."".
So, someone who takes much longer to graduate should pay the same, since the fees are independent of how long the studies last.