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I work as a researcher in a German university and also have 4h per week teaching obligation. Our program is international and in English, all students are treated equally. A significant part of the teaching staff is also not from Germany. I have never encountered the practices that you mention. If one of my students would describe the problems you mentioned (especially exploitation by university staff) I would encourage them to file a complaint with the university.

It is probably highly dependent on the university and program. If you are unsure, contact the study association ('Fachschaft') of the program and ask some foreign students about their experiences before applying.

Agreed. Not all universities will be like this bad. But I think to some degree it will happen everywhere. Complaining is something I also always suggested, but now that I've experienced real life outside school/university for some time I'm not sure about that any more. For instance, you have a lot of rights here, but I found in my own experience that you only have the rights you know you have and you know how to enforce. In another country I know less about my rights and how to enforce them.

Also you often don't know how much different people profit from the current situation as it is. For instance, if the president would directly profit from the ridiculously high rents of the foreign students all he would care about is keeping the situation quiet. A complaint may yield absolutely nothing or worse.

For instance, you have a lot of rights here, but I found in my own experience that you only have the rights you know you have and you know how to enforce.

That is definitely true, for foreigners this starts at an even more basic level - all the relevant regulations are written in (bureaucratic) German. So, even if you want to read up on your rights, it can be difficult, unless you have near-native reading comprehension.

Luckily, there seem to be positive changes in this area. E.g. our faculty is now translating the exam regulations for English programs.

Sounds really good!

> At first they pay more than German students for the same semester

Citation needed. Never heard of any differences in fees for foreigners.

> Then they hardly get access to the public student dorms

Not in my experience. Dorms are full of foreigh students.

> and are put 3-6 people in old, unclean apartments far away from university (partly without public transport access)

"Are put"? What you describe is a "WG" ("Wohngemeinschaft" roughly "living community") which is simply a co-rental. So nobody "is put" there, you search and rent what you can find. WGs are generally recommended for foreign students because it allows better socializing and integration.

> EACH of them pays as much as a German would pay for the whole apartment

What you state is that a foreigner typically pays 3x-6x compared to a native, which is false. The price for 1 room in a WG is normally somewhat lower than for a 1-room-appartment.

> Old dudes (teachers, profs, organizers) dating barely legal girls in exchange for favors also is accepted practice.

University typically starts at the age of 21-23. Since you call this "barely legal" this points out that you either not know what you are talking about or intentionally make false claims.

I live and work in Germany since 2001, I've worked as a researcher at a university institution 2001-2004 and knew a lot of foreign students, also as close friends. Your post is not compatible with the reality that I know.

> "Are put"? What you describe is a "WG" ("Wohngemeinschaft" roughly "living community") which is simply a co-rental. So nobody "is put" there, you search and rent what you can find. WGs are generally recommended for foreign students because it allows better socializing and integration.

Yes, there are normal WGs, and if you get a room in a WG your payment is usually a fair share.

But there is also the situation where foreign students have to sign time limited (unkündigbar) contracts for beds in WGs. I'd be happy to hear that this doesn't everywhere, but I was basically the guy who delivered the students to these apartments on their first day, so it certainly happens at one university.

And sadly I know that there are foreigners who rent private apartments in the same fashion to foreign students from their country with the same method, all over Berlin, so probably also in other cities. However that's not the exploitation I'm talking about.

Lastly let me repeat that: I talk about an experience here, that I was part of because I didn't know it at first. I don't interpret general newspaper knowledge or something.

Which university was this? Because in mine (HU) foreigners weren't treated any different.

Edit: After responding to some other comments I have to rewrite this. True, if you never heard anything about corruption in your university it may percentagewise be much better than mine. My reaction towards HU (assuming Berlin, no idea if there are other HUs out there) however is stiff, since I also know about some corruption there. It's not the same level though and a totally different department.

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"I haven't seen foreigners getting treated any different." HU is not the smallest university. Mine was much smaller, but still I didn't know until I worked directly in that area.

I don't want to mention the name of the university.

> I don't want to mention the name of the university.

Preposterous, given that you have total anonymity and anyone reading your extremely general rant without any details would have any idea who you are. I was willing to accept your comment as an opinion based on your personal experiences, but after this turn in the discussion I can't take you seriously, because it's obvious that you are creating a lot of drama that doesn't actually exist. Posting the name of the university is a non-issue - unless you fear people who are actually there might dispute your claims... given the very general and broad claims you made you must be incredibly well-connected to a lot of people in a lot of different departments at that university. Not easy to believe even without your refusal to give a simple name to the place.

> Old dudes (teachers, profs, organizers) dating barely legal girls

I highly doubt that a lot of "barely legal girls" would be in universities since, in Germany, 16-year-olds are considered fully "legal" in that particular regard.

> 16-year-olds are considered fully "legal" in that particular regard.

Not quite correct. See https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stgb/__182.html and https://www.gesetze-im-internet.de/stgb/__174.html

I don't believe a word.

None of those things happen at my University. It sounds like yours was simply extremely rotten.

Yeah, even though this part of my university wasn't clear to me until I directly worked there, you would've certainly heard some strange stories of corruption if your university would be on the same level. Mine even has reports on youtube about the chancellor giving money to foreign professors without them doing something for it, people in high offices sleeping with each other and keeping each others positions save, etc.

I have seen the opposite of that, some of this is I could prove, for example that they get better conditions in dorms.

Which university?

> they pay more than German students for the same semester

If the university in question is funded by taxes, I would be surprised if it wasn't the case.

Which University?