It's harder to get a seat these days at Hamburg University's main library, I'm told. Sometimes students, books in hand, even stake out spaces on the floor. Until recently, the reading rooms were seldom crowded. The library's bistro, meanwhile, has thinned out. What gives? Could this be an early effect of global warming, i.e. rising temperatures = rising sea levels = rising reading before the books float away?

The apparent reason is more dramatic than climatic calamity on the horizon, at least from the students' perspective: namely the introduction of tuition.

Since 1970, graduates of a (West German) Gymnasium, the most academically rigorous type of German secondary school, had been entitled to a free university education (students from abroad didn't pay either). This changed slightly in the late 1990s, when universities began to levy fees on continuing education students and students who took more than seven years to complete their degrees. German undergraduates typically study for six years, compared with four in the United States and 3.5 in Britain, according to the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Many Germans study far longer. And why shouldn't they? They haven't had to pay tuition, they've been able to postpone final exams until they felt ready, and they enjoy a wealth of student discounts. What's more, to help them pay their living expenses, there's BAföG: state grants and interest-free loans whose unhurried repayment can be waived altogether under certain conditions.

When I studied in West Berlin many years ago, back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth and Jimmy Carter was the U.S. president, I was flabbergasted to hear German students complain that their government, which was paying for their education, wasn't giving them enough financial aid to boot. The lollygagging got me too. At the start of every semester, days on end could be spent discussing what the courses ought to cover.

The envy of the world in the late 19th century, German universities have been getting poor marks for decades in international surveys. Underfunding is one of the biggest problems. Despite this, in 2002 the then governing coalition of Social Democrats and Greens enshrined into law a ban on tuition for anyone pursuing a first degree. Germany's Federal Constitutional Court overturned the law in January 2005, allowing each of Germany's 16 states to decide for itself whether, and how much, its universities charge. In June 2006 the city-state of Hamburg settled on 500 euros per semester starting in 2007 (for comparison: according to the New York-based College Board, average tuition and fees in 2006-07 at four-year public U.S. colleges and universities was $5,836). The amount is expected to be raised before long.

Tuition concentrates the mind. But it's not the only thing likely to cut the length of study. Germany, like other members of the European Union, is adopting bachelor's and master's degree programs. Other educational reforms are ongoing as well.

Hamburg University's student union says it will continue to try to block tuition, calling it "antisocial and wrong." Its efforts are almost certainly hopeless, though. University authorities seem determined to press on, come more noisy protests, hell or high water.