2 days ago the highest court in Germany pronounced a judgement that from now on it is no more forbidden for the countries to demand money from the students for studying at their universities. So far it has pretty much been like this: you paid a rather small amount (100-200€) every semester for administration and the lectures in general have been for free. Depending on the income of your parents you can get up to 585€/month credit from the German State up to a certain amount (about 12 semesters for me max.) and then you have to pay back half of the money after you finished your studies.
Now the highest court allows the countries to demand money from students, which will most likely be about 500€/semester at start (some say amounts far above 1000-2000€ are possible, too).

Especially as a friend of mine is studying in Canada I know that many countries have been demanding money from their students for ages, and the new fees won't be enough to cover the costs of the universities neither. However I still think it's a bad thing. On the one hand, I think this will (again/even more) split the society in 2 different classes, and on the other hand many of my friends and probably I myself will have to stop studying just because we lack money. So far I haven't heard of any national credit system that could borrow you the money..

:/