Politicians in the German state of Bavaria have granted public universities the right to charge tuition fees to?some international students, but there seems little appetite to levy them.

The state¡¯s Higher Education Innovation Act, passed after two years of talks, only allows fees for students from outside the European Union, because the bloc¡¯s rules require that all those from within its borders be treated like domestic students.

It is not the first German state to introduce such fees. In 2017, Baden-W¨¹rttemberg set a fixed charge of €1,500 (?1,257) a semester for non-EU students. In Saxony, universities were given the option to charge non-EU students, but only two music schools decided to do so.

Those?that have introduced fees are outliers in a country where demand for skilled labour, local politics and a desire for global soft power protect the principle of free education for foreigners.

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Kumar Ashish, chairman of the Federal Union of International Students in Germany, said the declining number of international students in Baden-W¨¹rttemberg?shows?fees in Bavaria were likely to put people off too.

He said Germany¡¯s generally fee-free system is one of the things that attracts foreign students, adding: ¡°Even before getting a quality education, the first impression is that they are going to get a free education.¡±

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None of the Bavarian universities contacted by Times Higher Education said that they planned to begin charging, although the executive board of the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Regensburg said it was discussing the idea, and Munich 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Applied Sciences said only that there would be no fees ¡°until further notice¡±.

Joachim Hornegger, president of the 51¹ú²úÊÓƵ of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU), said his institution had decided not to charge fees because its typical non-EU students ¡°wouldn¡¯t be able to afford their studies¡± if it did, and?because only 10 per cent of students at FAU would meet the requirements.?

International?students at FAU have?the option of spending up to €9,000 (?7,500) on support packages that can include setting up bank accounts, collection from the airport and the completion of official paperwork, which are not required but ¡°simplif[y] life a lot¡± he said.

Professor Hornegger said universities will decide whether to charge based on the make-up of their international student cohort.?Institutions with a large number of Chinese students who ¡°take advantage of a programme then return to their home country¡± may feel it is valid to ask ¡°if we should charge them for a top-level education¡±, he said.?

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Foreign students have continued to flock to Germany since the pandemic, with up to 350,000 estimated to have enrolled for the 2021-22 academic year, an 8 per cent rise on the previous year, according to DAAD, the German Academic Exchange Service.

Peter-Andr¨¦ Alt, president of the German Rectors¡¯ Conference, said Bavaria¡¯s law, which also grants universities more autonomy over faculty hiring and campus construction, offered universities the chance to ¡°experiment¡± but he doubted whether many would decide to charge.

Ulrich M¨¹ller, head of policy studies at the Centre for Higher Education,?said administrators would incur considerable costs finding the roughly 5 per cent of students who had to pay, excluding refugees, exchange students and those who went to school in Germany. ¡°I¡¯m even surprised Bavaria did this, because it doesn¡¯t make any sense at all,¡± he said.?

¡°It is not a well-thought-out idea, to establish a tuition fee only for a minority of students. It means a lot of effort for little return.¡±

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ben.upton@timeshighereducation.com