I often hear about Americans having as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt… how do they get so much debt when their fees are only $9k a year? Where is the rest of their debt coming from?
Education has quite opaque pricing which makes comparison difficult.<p>For example, my undergraduate Alma Mater, a New York State University, charges 7K per year in-state, 25K out-of-state. Which one of those is factored into the average cited here?<p>Furthermore, what percentage of students actually pay this tuition? Poor students get financial aid from the government and the university, good students get academic scholarships - all the way up to a free ride. Are those discounts reflected in the averages?<p>And, direct tuition is not the full story of the cost of education. For example, while it looks like a NY student can get a good deal on State education, it's possible that their family's life-time tax bill to support education far exceeds the savings. Likewise, if German tuition seems cheap - where is the money coming from? Germans must be paying for it in some other way.<p>The thing that matters the most is: how affordable is a college education to someone. Let's say I am a New York resident with good grades and I can get a half-ride tuition (3.5K/year) at a very good State School, the fact that I could also go to NYU (50k/year) or Columbia (61k/year) is irrelevant to my affordability. If I chose to go in to 240K debt to go to Columbia, that's my choice and my problem I could have gone to Stony Brook and pay 14K for 4 years for a solid education.<p>And finally, there's the elephant in the room that not all degrees are the same, but somehow they cost the same. If I get a highly relevant degree (let's say, Engineering) then even the 240K student debt can be easily paid off in a few years of full time work, and launch me into a great career (though, the Stony Brook degree would too.) On the other hand, the fact that Columbia would likewise happily bill you 240K for a soft-degree that will never lead to a good job is a fricking crime.
I'm genuinely surprised that the US is not at the top of the list. Can anyone explain why England's tuition is so high (or has risen so much as the article says)?
I think Scotland deserves an honourable mention here. Bachelor’s degrees are free, under a scheme called “SAAS” (Might be home and EU only). Interestingly, people from England have to pay the same in Scotland as they do in England.
They say in Austria you don't even apply. You just turn up at any university and everyone is accepted. If you can't pass the exams you get washed out quite quickly though.
I'm from Austria. We have 0 (zero) tuition fees.<p>Sounds good right?<p>Well... actually... not that great if you are ambitious, because it means that Austrian universities are over crowded. It is extremely common to see "long term" students, essentially people who study for 10+ years so they get state benefits as a student. Ambitious people will struggle to complete their studies in the minimum required time (e.g. 3 years for a Bachelor's), because overcrowding means that there are long waiting lists for exams. Some students need to enlist to a waiting list for an exam before even joining the university if they want to have a chance to do an exam in time so that they can finish within the 3 years. It's just complete bonkers.<p>Of course, because the EU is led by fucking geniuses (not), they thought it would be a good idea if any EU citizen is allowed to study in any EU country, meaning that Austrian universities are not only overcrowded, but overcrowded by Germans who don't want to pay tuition fees in their home country. It's easy for them because we speak the same language and Austrian students miss out on spaces and miss out on exam opportunities forcing them to study much longer than needed.<p>Honestly, it's a perfect example of how two populist headlines such as<p>- free tuition fees<p>- any EU citizen can study in any EU country<p>sound great on the news and abroad when you want to make your country/EU look good but in reality are a complete disaster.<p>I would have preferred to pay some fees which then would have meant that I could have had a normal university experience, but instead I didn't finish my degree at all because of those dumb socialist-populist policies which put me in the difficult situation of either aborting my studies and finding a job because my dad died, my mother was ill and I had to help out or study for an extra 2 years and struggle for the most basic things in life.
In the UK where did all the extra money go? It's a mystery!<p>Hmm, downvoted. Stupid question? Irrelevant? To go from the government paying £4000 a year for a students free degree to the student paying £10,000 a year still seems odd to me.