There are some (significant?) drawbacks to this. Although English fees are outrageous now, 8 years ago here's the differences I observed between English and German university. Because it's free, the first year has to be brutal to weed out <x>% the huge number of applicants. Lecture halls are overcrowded, especially for popular courses. If you want a seat, you need to get there 10 minutes early. The amount of 1:1 with staff or lab time is often small or non-existent. And courses aren't necessarily set up so you can take them in the correct order. In England, 3 years for a bachelor is normal. In Germany, I have known many people to take 6 years or more.
So just because it's free doesn't make it better. Having said that, if you know the flaws it's fine. Many people go to University to have a degree for a job later, for that not having crippling debt is much more important than the absolute quality of the academic education. And post-grad courses and research don't suffer from this AFAIK.
I thought German's also cram in 4 terms every year rather than 2 and a bit in the UK? It seem like Germans who were doing 4 years had covered more ground than a bachelors + 2 years of MSc in the UK.
Perhaps that's not the case across all courses/universities, but seemed to be the case from my experience with Mathematics Erasmus students (in both directions) and German PhD students.
Seems to me like the German system is very high quality, and that the UK let too many weak candidates in to University and so the first year (and every year) is getting easier to compensate...
I remember that this was the case with Scottish students (as Advanced Highers did not cover as much as A-levels) so they had to work much harder in their first year. Scottish friends seemed to be under the impression that the first year in Scottish Universities was much easier than UK equivalents...
> Seems to me like the German system is very high quality, and that the UK let too many weak candidates in to University and so the first year (and every year) is getting easier to compensate...
This kind of generalisation is obviously useless, think Cambridge. Not that I'm defending all English universities, most of them aren't great. But that's true everywhere.
A big problem in Germany is that the transition to Bachelor/Master degrees has resulted in courses that are in need of refining. Badly in some cases. I'm mainly critical to the way German institutions handle undergrad degrees. Their research is top notch, and many of my friends from England went on to do research there. I think that's also an indication that English degrees are rigorous enough.
UK admissions is in principle more rigorous, by far. It acknowledges that school marks aren't everything and consideration for individuals with unusual situations or evident passion outside of school is given. Since offers are extended on a case-by-case basis, it's more fine-grained and the overcrowding, Darwinian filtering doesn't happen.
It's very easy to confuse working hard for working smart. Both will can get you to the same place, but in terms of personal development, one has to be nurtured and the other burns you out.
So just because it's free doesn't make it better. Having said that, if you know the flaws it's fine. Many people go to University to have a degree for a job later, for that not having crippling debt is much more important than the absolute quality of the academic education. And post-grad courses and research don't suffer from this AFAIK.