Sixty-two percent of students are unable to afford college in the U.S. today, according to a Huffington Post poll. An annual 8 percent increase in tuition costs makes matters worse, meaning college education costs double every nine years.

“For a baby born today, this means that college costs will be more than three times current rates when the child matriculates in college,” according to the Smart Student Guide to Financial Aid, a website that helps students with financial aid information.

On Oct. 4, Germany’s higher education officially went tuition free, according to Forbes’ website.

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German Senator Dorothee Stapelfeldt said in a September interview with the European Times tuition fees are unfair because students deserve to be able to study at an excellent university without charge.

“Tuition fees are unjust. They discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up study,” Stapelfeldt said. “It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high quality standard free of charge in Germany.”

Germany is the most recent nation to hop on the free tuition bandwagon, others include Malta, Greece, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Austria, Cyprus and Norway.

“We got rid of tuition fees because we do not want higher education which depends on the wealth of the parents,” said Gabrielle Heinen-Kjajic, the minister for the science and culture in Lower Saxony, Germany.

Students have a beneficial alternative for applying to study abroad.

As well as going through the SIU Foreign Exchange Office, students can go through the Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst, which translates to the German Academic Exchange Service, to study abroad. The DAAD provides grants and scholarships to students studying abroad in Germany and even pays professors to come from Germany to teach in America, according to its website.

The organization has an office in New York, led by director Nina Lemmens. She said the organization serves thousands of students.

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“[We have] about 9,000 students, at any length of stay, [going through the DAAD],” said Lemmens.“We give scholarships and provide funding for students going to Germany.”

“[Going tuition free] has been going on for a while,” said Lemmens, “Germany is a federal state, so all parts had to agree before this happened. It has actually been a long process getting to this point, that’s why it’s big news now.”

This doesn’t mean much for SIU students planning to study in Germany. Thomas Saville, head of SIU’s foreign exchange program, was doubtful of Germany’s free tuition affecting our students at all.

“If you’re doing an exchange, part of it is you are paying your home tuition,” Saville said.

Many countries have out-of-country tuition for foreign exchange students as well, lowering hopes of free foreign exchange for American students. Germany announced on Oct. 9 it would extend free tuition to American students.

American exchange students only need to pay their home tuition.

When asked how this information affected their study abroad decision, students reacted positively.

“It definitely reinforces my decision, that I want to go to Germany,” said Tyler Babcook, a freshman from Springfield studying agriculture.

Babcook said America does not care for its students as it should, and students are instead treated as cash cows.

“America treats colleges as an institution to make money instead of institution for higher education. They charge outlandish prices for tuition and for books that they get very cheaply,” said Babcook. “If America were to treat their students and colleges like the European nations treat theirs, we would have a higher rate of educated population and, as a result, a lower rate of poverty and crime.”

So when will America follow this free tuition trend? According to Saville and Lemmens, “Never.”