It hasn’t been a very good year for attempts to up – or even just introduce – tuition fees around the world.
Students from Quebec to Chile to Hungary thoroughly rejected government efforts to use tuition hikes to cure money woes.
Most recently, Bloomberg reports attempts by the Hungarian government in December to introduce tuition fees were met with protests by more than a thousand students and the plans were abandoned.
Closer to home, Quebec students celebrated a victory in September when the newly elected Parti Québécois said it would axe the previous government’s hotly contested proposed tuition increases.
The announcement came a little over a year after the former Liberal government said they planned to increase fees by $325 a year over five years, starting in September 2012.
The increases would have amounted to $1,625, a 75 per cent increase, but still the lowest tuition fees in the country. The announcement led to a stream of rallies and riots, some which paralyzed the city of Montreal.
It isn’t the only time in recent years that students have taken to the streets to voice their displeasure.
Chilean media outlets spent much of 2011 and 2012 reporting on ongoing strife between post-secondary students and the government over everything from tuition to subsidies to general university reform.
Here, the Charlatan takes a look at the state of post-secondary education in Cuba, Chile, Iceland, and Denmark.
Cuba
Tuition
• All of Cuba’s 68 post-secondary institutes, both undergraduate and graduate, are public and entirely free.
Additional Fees
• None.
Scholarship Opportunities
• For students interested in studying physical education and sports, there is an scholarship offered by the Cuban government that provides medical care, free e-mail access, laundry service, and a monthly allowance.
International Students
• Tuition is free – Cuba has even garnering international attention for ELAM, or Escuela Latino Americana de Medicina, their fully-funded medical school that trains doctors around the world for free.
Ongoing issues/Recent changes
• Since 2000, Cuba has been focusing efforts on expanding university access. Despite being free, people struggling socio-economically still have issues with access and there is a high dropout rate.
*Source: the Cuban education ministry
Chile
Tuition
• Students pay tuition, although there is no government enforced tuition and it varies institution to institution and program to program, much like in Canada. The prices vary according to whether the university is private or public. The Globe and Mail reported in June 2012 that average tuition is $3,500 per year while average household income is $8,500.
Additional Fees
• Housing and similar fees are not covered.
Scholarship Opportunities
• There are scholarship opportunities specific to each university and program, much like in Canada.
Ongoing issues/Recent changes
• The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says that, despite recent progress, students with different incomes and backgrounds still struggle for access. Chilean media outlets spent much of 2011 and 2012 reporting on ongoing strife between post-secondary students and the government over everything from tuition to subsidies to general university reform – the conflict is still ongoing. The Guardian reported in December that the students had won an important victory in the conflict when Teodoro Ribera, the country’s justice minister, resigned after a corruption scandal involving several private universities.
*Source: The International Comparative Higher Education Finance and Accessibility Project (ICHEFAP) at the University of Buffalo
Iceland
Tuition
• There are no tuition fees at Iceland’s public universities, but there are annual registration fees that vary from university to university. For example, the University of Iceland charges students ISK 60,000 (a little over $450 Canadian) annually to register.
• The country’s private universities all charge tuition fees.
Additional Fees
• Some housing and similar fees, depending on scholarships.
Scholarship Opportunities
• Students have access to the Icelandic Student Loan Fund, which provides loans to cover the cost of living and food for students, as well as tuition in the case of those who go to private universities.
International Students
• There are no tuition fees for international students and American exchange students are even offered a stipend.
Ongoing issues/Recent changes
• Iceland needs to move towards a better financing method of post-secondary education, but all discussions of introducing tuition fees have been met with controversy since it might block equal access to university and “social mobility.”
*Source: the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Denmark
Tuition
• All post-secondary institutions are free for students in the European Union.
Additional Fees
• Students outside the European Union need to apply for a study permit in Denmark.
• Housing and similar fees.
Scholarship Opportunities
• The Danish government offers a few scholarships for non-European Union students who wish to study in Denmark.
• European Union citizens have access to rent subsidies, but others do not and can jeopardize their permits by attempting to apply for the rent subsidies.
International Students
• All international students participating in student exchange programs have free tuition.
• For students that aren’t from the European Union and aren’t on student programs tuition ranges from 6,000 to 16,000 Euros.
*Source: Studyindenmark.dk, a government website designed for international students living in Denmark
