actually my university degree didn't cost me a cent besides some hundred euros for books in 2,5 years

The $500 were just for fees, insurance..things like that !!!! Compare to the US ! $500 a year is nothing.

basically the consensus i get from this thread is that some places are free while other are not.

the statement "school is free in europe" is way to broad and thus incorrect.

why are you comparing the the USA? i dont even live in the USA, nor is any part of this topic based on the USA.

why do you feel the need to bring up the USA when they have nothing to do with the topic?

Try calling an at home doctor in some places in europe and you'll have one arrive no problem. Call a plumber and your looking at least 2 weeks. If peopple can get free university, why not go into a high viewed profession like a doctor or lawyer. Plumbers etc have it made there..

Well seeing as 'Europe' isn't one country is that really all that shocking? School is free in some parts of Europe so unless the statement you are trying to disprove stated 'in all of Europe' it is not an incorrect statement.

Thing is, if you ask a mainland European they'll probably forget the UK is unfortunately part of Europe, and so likely say it's free; if you ask someone from the UK they'll likely forget about Scotland (as I did and Ross pointed out, although that'll teach you Scot's to hate me for actually spending my money on a holiday there...) and say it costs money.

:1orglaugh:1orglaugh

School can NEVER be free, countries all spend big money to educate their people.

It's a demagogic thread.

Danish example:
"The expenditure on higher education corresponded to 1.8% of the GDP in Denmark, as opposed to an average in the OECD of 1.3%"
"Denmark spends the highest proportion of GDP on education of any EU member state."

Education cost is measured in percentage of the country GDP. It's a non-sense to generalize, there are too many schools, too many countries, too many personal cases. You can get grants, you can pay to enter a good business school, u can do this and that, and what not.

it basically balances out - the countries where its free are much more expensive than the countries where it isn't free so I'd say fees + living expenses at least 25k a year and in some countries much much more. I don't think anybody can live a "normal" life with less than 4k a month in Norway for example...

free in norway and 28% income tax isn't bad in my opinion...

btw, as someone pointed out in this thread, we have a lot of oil money but its all stashed away in our oil fund (about $350 billions currently for the future.. (spending about 4% of the yearly return)

average pay in norway was $58000 a year in 2005 and I'm assuming its grown a fair bit after that aswell.. the lowest government issued help is currently $1133 a month..

That's nothing, over here it's like 10x that.. :-/

In Portugal the state universities are free. You have to pay a fee called "propina". When I was a university student 10 years ago it was about 60.000 escudos (300 Euros) per year. Private universities are paid (something around 200 Euros/month in average)

pretty cheap for private aswell...

Lifestyle in Norway is way better than in Portugal. Here minimum wage is 403Euros. You don't have a regulated minimum wage but you know it's more than 403 Euros :)

Yes, in France it isnt free. But for instance, I have a friend who went to one of the top business schools in France, which has an exchange with the Harvard MBA program. I think his degree cost him like 8,000 euros compared to probably $80,000 - $100,000 for a Harvard MBA. Its a huge difference.... good for students, bad for older people making a lot of money.

Europeans can go to Scottish university for free, but english, welsh or irish people have to pay the full £3000 /year

Incorrect. Scottish university tuition IS NOT FREE for UK citizens. I got accepted into Edinburgh for my Astrophysics Degree, then found out I'd have to pay £3000 /year just the same, so thought fuck it and stayed in England.

It can be free depends on the financial situation of the person applying and their family just like in the rest of the world hell even here in the US some students get FREE university and college with scholarships, grants and all that other stuff.

wtf i never knew in some countries college and university were free...

There are a lot of free or very cheap ones
cheap like 200 euro per year or so