Free Swedish tuition at its end?

Andrei Neculau — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 19:38:46 +0000

In today’s (n.r. June 23, 2008) Svenska Dagblade (Dagens Nyheter too), an article was published stating that this autumn a bill introducing tuition fees for higher studies in Sweden will be under vote. If it will get the necessary votes, then starting January 1st, 2010, at the latest, Swedish universities will ask for a tuition fee and they will also be able to give scholarships. Who said all that? Lars Leijonborg, the current Swedish minister for Higher Education and Research.

The Local covered this story as well, but in a light English version.

The Press Release of the Swedish Government on this topic can be read in English.

After just one day of votes, an SvD poll shows 9000+ people answering YES! to the question Is it right to impose fees for overseas students?

There are also negative voices around starting from the chair of the Swedish association of student unions, and ending with the universities themselves. You can browse some comments on thelocal.se here and here.

This action probably also related to the increasing number of foreign students, especially due to a presumed high number of Pakistan applicants (50% of the total international applicants), which puts a pressure on the centralized system, that the system obviously cannot or can hardly cope with.

On July 27, The Local stepped up and provided a round up of all the Swedish news and positions regarding the tuition fee.

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© Andrie, 2008. | Permalink | 15 comments
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Tags: admission, fee, scholarships, study, sweden, tuition