Pierre Bourdieu

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Everywhere, the public authorities contribute to expenditure in tertiary education. The amounts allocated to institutions often only partially cover tuition costs. In most countries, their budget is also partly dependent on private household contributions representing a fairly significant share of their income. In such cases, students enrolled full time for a first qualification at ISCED level 5 are obliged to contribute financially to the cost of their studies. Only the situation of students with a state-subsidised place is considered here.

A distinction may be drawn between two major categories of contribution sometimes present in combination, namely administrative fees and tuition fees. Contributions to administrative costs may include fees that have to be paid just once when students enrol for the first time (entrance fees) or annually (registration fees), and certification fees meant to cover the organisation of examinations and the provision of administrative documents relating to the final qualification. Furthermore, students may have to pay contributions to their tuition costs that are often higher than administrative fees (Figure D16).

Considered here are contributions to be paid by students irrespective of any financial support due to some of them in accordance with certain criteria.

Figure D15: Types of private contribution annually paid by full-time daytime students for a first qualification (ISCED 5) in the public and/or government-dependent private sectors, 2006/07

CZ ES

BE de

LU

LI MT

Annual contributions to student organisations

Annual registration fees (and possible contributions to student organisations)

Annual tuition fees (and possible administrative fees and/or contributions to student organisations) Neither annual fees nor compulsory contributions

Source: Eurydice. Additional notes

Belgium (BE fr, BE nl): The annual amount requested from students covers registration fees and tuition fees.

Germany: Since 2006/07, the Länder have been free to request contributions of up to PPS EUR 944 to tuition costs. As of January 2007, seven Länder had decided to require these contributions.

Estonia, Hungary, Romania and Slovenia: Students without a subsidised place pay contributions to tuition costs.

Greece: The Hellenic Open University is the only institution to charge contributions to tuition costs.

Italy: Students also have to pay a regional tax for student welfare. Certification fees are only due in the institutes of art and music offering alta formazione artistica e musicale (higher level artistic and musical training).

Cyprus: Contributions to student organisations are paid just once, when students are first admitted to tertiary education.

Latvia: The Figure relates to students without a state-subsidised place (around three-quarters of all students). Subsidised students benefit from access free of charge.

Lithuania: Contributions to tuition costs are due from first-cycle students for a Bachelor qualification and second-cycle Master students irrespective of whether they receive a state subsidy.

Austria: Universities may waive payment of tuition fees, but cannot request them from students legally exempt from them. The Austrians and the students from EU countries currently do not pay tuition fees at universities (since September 2008).

Slovenia: Higher education institutions may charge students for enrolment fees, administrative costs, selection procedure costs or field training costs.

Finland: University students have to pay contributions to student organisations; by contrast, such payments are optional for students in the polytechnic faculties.

United Kingdom (SCT): The SAAS (Student Awards Agency for Scotland) pays the contributions of students who request this. Most students who complete their course are liable to make a compulsory payment after graduation – the ‘graduate endowment’. Nevertheless the Scottish Government has legislated to abolish the Graduate Endowment Fee from 1st April 2008

Norway: In some institutions in the government-dependent private sector, students also have to pay administrative entrance fees, annual registration fees, and a contribution to their tuition costs.

Explanatory note (Figure D15)

Administrative entrance fees (payable just once) and certification fees are not considered. Only annual registration fees, contributions to student organisations and contributions to tuition costs are included. They are fully defined in the Glossary. The types of contribution reported here are those payable by full-time students with a subsidised place (or, in Latvia, with a non- subsidised place) and on time with their studies. Any financial support they may receive is disregarded.

Independently of or in addition to those contributions, a system of compulsory payments to student organisations may have been established. These are contributions to costs associated with student life or services, such as those arising from cultural activities or for certain kinds of insurance. Where they are required, these amounts are much lower than contributions to the funding of education.

In some countries, special measures may apply to students who have to redo a year, or who take longer than a certain fixed length of time to complete their studies.

Tuition fees are a widespread form of contribution, which is adopted in 16 countries. In seven of them – Belgium (French and Flemish Communities), Bulgaria, the Czech Republic (ISCED 5B programmes only), Lithuania, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) and Liechtenstein – such fees are the only financial contribution required of students.

Annually paid registration fees are also very widespread. They are due in 12 countries, either in combination with tuition fees as in Belgium (German-speaking Community), in Spain (for ISCED 5A programmes), Italy, Portugal, Norway (some institutions in the government-dependent private sector) and Turkey, or alone (Germany, France, Luxembourg, Romania, Slovakia and Iceland).

In Finland (public-sector university institutions), Sweden and Norway (in the public sector), students pay only an annual contribution to their own organisations. In Cyprus, they are required to pay a small contribution to the student organisation just once when they first enrol for study. In Poland they have to pay very low registration fees once when they first enter tertiary education.

In seven countries, namely the Czech Republic (ISCED 5A), Denmark, Greece (excluding the Open University), Spain (ISCED 5B), Hungary, Malta and the United Kingdom (Scotland), students doing their first qualification who keep within the normal course schedule are entitled to free tertiary education. The same applies to students in the polytechnic faculties in Finland and to students with a subsidised place in Estonia and Latvia. The United Kingdom (Scotland) is regarded as a country in which access to tertiary education is free, as a government agency pays the officially determined registration fee for all reference students irrespective of their social classification, provided they so request and do not repeat their year of study. However, until April 2008, once they have graduated, these students have to make a compulsory payment in recognition of the support they have received. In all, therefore, a dozen countries provide tertiary education access to which may be regarded as free of charge (with neither tuition fees nor annual registration fees payable).

Finally, it should be noted that the current trend in contributions to tertiary education in Europe is towards tuition fees. Besides the fact that this applies to many countries, some of which have recently introduced such fees, a few more are discussing whether or not to introduce them or have decided that they will (the Czech Republic, Germany and Hungary), or are arranging for all students to pay them (Lithuania). By contrast, Slovenia is abolishing the payment of all tuition fees in ISCED level 5 programmes by 2009.