Finland, Like Sweden, to End Free Study for Some Foreigners

[Harold Schiffman]

Finland, Like Sweden, to End Free Study for Some Foreigners

Some foreign students in Finland will be charged tuition beginning in
2010, if a new university law drawn up by the government is approved
and goes into effect, as expected, in late 2009, according to the
Finnish newspaper Helsingen Sanomat. Students from outside the
27-nation European Union and the European Economic Area now enjoy
access to free higher education in Finland, but the new law would
impose tuition on non-European students enrolled in certain master's
programs, including those taught "in foreign languages and those with
an international orientation," the newspaper says.

Such programs are of growing importance to Finnish universities, which
are increasingly turning to English-language degree programs in order
to attract more international students. According to Finland's Center
For International Mobility, some 450 programs are taught in English at
the country's universities and polytechnics.

Helsingen Sanomat says universities would be allowed to set annual
fees at their discretion, but notes that proposals a few years ago
floated a range from approximately $5,000 to $18,000.

Meanwhile, Sweden's higher-education minister said recently that
similar changes were likely to take effect in that Nordic country in
2010 as well. According to the online publication The Local, the
minister, Lars Leijonborg, told Svenska Dagbladet, a leading
newspaper, that the government had reached agreement on the
controversial issue and was now united in its belief that Swedish
universities needed to be able to charge foreign students tuition in
the way that American and British universities have long done.

Student groups oppose the plan and worry that it is the first step
toward charging tuition to Swedish students as well.

"Free education is one of the primary reasons that students choose
Sweden," The Local reports, noting that most of the 13,000 foreign
students in Sweden who are not enrolled in exchange programs are
"Asian men who are pursuing technical degrees." —Aisha Labi

http://chronicle.com/news/article/5002/finland-like-sweden-to-end-free-study-for-some-foreigners

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