>On the other hand, German universities are still much more selective so class hierarchies are reflected in the trade-school/vocational school/university hierarchy.
I was under the impression that in Germany vocational schools were in general high-quality and prepared you for decent jobs. Is this not the case?
They are.
But outside some specific ones, a (good) univeristy education is still better.
Judging from the comment further down, I also assume that they are talking more about social class of students reflecting in the student bodies.
Which I can't confirm. I studied at a University that's by all measures one of the best in Germany and we had people from all social levels.
Having no tuition at all, makes this easy.
And from what I hear from Americans is very true for the US.
I agree with the clarification in the other comment, that we split/filter education significantly too early in young lifes. And while there are various way for "a second approach to education" there's way less help for older people than during youth/direct/first education paths.
> we had people from all social levels. Having no tuition at all, makes this easy
The missing (or very low) tuition indeed makes it easy for those who qualify indeed.
However the distribution isn't even across different groups of society. A reason is that the school system segregates early. After 4th grade it is initially decided which students go to Hauptschule (general school, or nowadays often Gesamtschule) on track of a "lower" education to start some apprenticeship after 9th grade or for "higher" education with an "Abitur" Qualifying for university after 12 or 13 grades.
While there are ways to switch tracks or getting on the "zweiter Bildungsweg" the early separation correlates quite high with the parents ability to assist which depends on their social background (did the child learn proper German at home, can they afford an apartment bug enough for a quite place for doing homework, are the parents busy working or can help studying, can they afford a tutor, ...)
Many of those differences become smaller as the number of pupils who qualify for university rises, but in research the difference is visible (especially in "traditional" states like Bavaria, less in others)
When at University in Germany, I was shocked by the lack of social mobility caused by the “decision” as early as age 10 / 4th grade to put students in different types of schools.
And, being the teacher’s decision, it opens the door to all kind of nasty biases.
Most gymnasium-going Germans were absolutely unaware of the undermining of the “social elevator” role of state schools.
More fun facts on German schools: psychical education classes are gender separated on the onset of puberty, and there are still state female-only secondary schools.
> I studied at a University that's by all measures one of the best in Germany and we had people from all social levels.
A cursory estimate of our very limited personal reality is hardly enough to draw any conclusions. Hard data shows that there is still a strong correlation between academic achievement and parental income, at all stages. https://academic.oup.com/esr/article/38/1/18/6335766
The best that can be said is that this correlation is weaker than in the US.
I was under the impression that in Germany vocational schools were in general high-quality and prepared you for decent jobs. Is this not the case?