Okay, what's the catch?! Well, apparently there isn't one... yet. Canada, although democratic and certainly quite capitalistic, is quite far down the Capitalism-Socialism scale. Some of the benefits of this include 'free' health care for all, many social programs, cheap education (especially when compared with higher-level education available in the United States), and of course a some sweet taxes. Further down the scale toward socialism are many Scandinavian countries. Some of the benefits of these countries' social values are in line with Canada's but instead of inexpensive education their higher education is free, that's right, FREE.
There are current discussions with the European Union to alter the current free education for all stance to have it only applicable to EU member countries. Presently, Denmark is the only country that charges non-EU students tuition fees and they have done so since September 2006.So if I were to study in Scandinavia would my English-only skills pose a problem? Normally not. Most Scandinavians speak some English and many courses are taught solely in English. Also, depending on the school, some offer introductory language classes as a part of an international student program.
Accommodation and living expenses are not covered, but student housing is often available at a less-than-market-value level.
Countries that make up Scandinavia include: Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Greenland. I'll have to do more research to verify if all Scandinavian countries, save Denmark as earlier mentioned, offer this sweet deal.
4 comments:
Pretty sweet.
If you just want the education and not the degree, there's the MIT OpenCourseWare which offers the text and recording of lectures, assignments and everything else which goes into the course.
-adrian.
Great info Adrian.
To reiterate: if you want the degree for little $ than Scandinavia's the way to go.
If you just want the knowledge than MIT's Open Course Ware learning is a great option and there are many more schools offering free material (without the degree) found on the OCW Consortium website.
MIT's probably a good one to go with, ;).
Nate,
I believe that all or most of the E.U. member counties had no tuition up until the mid-90's when Britain, Spain and the Netherlands were the first to charge small fees (about 3,000 - 5,000 euro for domestic students).
International graduate tuition in the U.K. is now around 10,000 pounds while in the Netherlands it is about 4,000 euros.
Denmark didn't charge international students tuition up until 2006. I was accepted into the International MSc. program in Coastal and Maritime Engineering at the Danish Technical University for 2005 while these fees were being debating in Danish parliament. Basically, they decided to charge tuition for international students to increase the quality of applicants and decided to offset this by offering scholarships to some international students. (Previously an applicant had to provide bank statements to show they had 10,000 euros in their bank account to be accepted since no stipend is provided). Because of these changes, DTU decided to allow the class of 2005 to attend tuition free and the changes were implemented the following year. Health insurance is also provided at no charge for international students and student housing was 60-90 euros per week two years ago.
You can find out about international programs at DTU here .
Presently I think only Sweden, Norway and Germany don't charge tuition for international students.
Check out DAAD (the German Academic Exchange Service) where you can search for international degrees in your field http://www.daad.de/deutschland/studienangebote/idp/06542.de.html
While not being charged tuition is nice, consider that UBC does not charge tuition for Ph.D. students for their first 5 years (regardless of citizenship) and that in the sciences and engineering Ph.D. stipends are around $20,000 - 25,000 a year. If you are brilliant enough to get an NSERC CGS your funding will be $35,000 from NSERC plus university top-ups so you'll be closer to $40,000 - 45,000.
Friends who've done graduate engineering degrees in the US typically get a tuition bursary and stipend of around $20,000 US. Australia offers Commonwealth Scholarships that cover tuition and living costs (for exceptional applicants).
So while the opportuninty to study in the E.U. is enticing, the living cost is often too high for most international students and most of the best international students end up in the US.
Finland is a Nordic country and not part of Scandinavia.
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