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Main Content
International Students and Higher Education in Europe
Tuition fees often six times higher than local EU students has not slowed growth in non-EU enrollment at European Universities
Recently, a growing number of voices have been expressing concerns about the competitiveness of European higher education institutions vis-à-vis international students. International students who come to Europe for their university education often face significantly higher tuition fees than those paid by local students. At the 2 March 2010 Maastricht Debates, professors from various universities in and around Maastricht met discuss the future of financing for higher education – and discussion about the inequalities between EU and non-EU students regarding tuition fees was a prominent concern.
Professor Luc Soete, an economist and the Director of the research institute at UNU-MERIT, expressed concerns that high tuition fees for international students were unfair, and unmanageable – ultimately leading to fewer international students at European schools. In the Netherlands, tuition for EU students is €1 672 and for international students, €12 000, while in the United Kingdom, UK/EU students pay a maximum of £3 390 and internationals, up to £18 000. At the same time, in the United Kingdom the Higher Education Statistics Agency has released reports suggesting that high tuition rates for international students have done little to deter enrollment – even in the face of economic crisis.
In 2008/2009, non-EU student enrollment increased by 9.4% at UK universities. In many European countries there are caps on the number of domestic students who can enroll (usually related to government funding of higher education), but there are often no caps on international students, which has lead to consistently increasing non-EU enrollment and collecting significantly higher tuition fees.
If this unrestrained growth were to be sustained, even for only a few years the impacts would be considerable. Firstly, it would help address the funding problems that many public universities are having due to reduced government payments, and inability to attract large private donors. However, it may also lead to a situation where EU students become displaced – especially when EU enrollment is capped, and non-EU is not. Finally, it may become that the only non-EU students who can afford to pay these high tuition rates are the wealthy. The ability to study in Europe may increasingly dependent on wealth and privilege.
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