No tuition fees for foreign students coming from outside EU and EEA

Minister Kalliomäki decides to let matter drop

Antti Kalliomäki

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Minister of Education Antti Kalliomäki (SDP) is backing down on plans to impose tuition fees on foreign students coming from outside the European Union and European Economic Area who study at Finnish institutions of higher education.
      Kalliomäki felt that he had to drop the project after a scholarship programme, which was to have served as a counterbalance for the tuition fee, did not move forward as had been hoped.
      Agreement had been reached on scholarships to help students from Third World countries to study in Finland, but the Ministry of Education says that the programme on its own would not have been enough.
     
Another likely reason is that the change would not necessarily have been won the approval the Social Democratic Party’s parliamentary group. Some Social Democratic MPs have expressed concern that forcing foreign students to pay for their studies might turn into a slippery slope, and that mandatory university fees might eventually be extended to all students.
      Kalliomäki reached his decision on Thursday after a meeting of the SDP Members of Parliament. His change of heart was reported in Friday’s edition of the Social Democratic Party newspaper Uutispäivä Demari.
      Esa Suominen, chairman of the Social Democratic Party’s student organisation, said on Friday that credit for the latest development should go to the Social Democrats on the Parliament’s Education and Culture Committee who have, in Suominen’s words, "emphasised equality in education above all else, rather than merely seeking profit".
     
The Finnish business community has largely been in favour of charging for tuition for foreign students. Several university administrators have also come out in favour of such a move, saying that the country’s financially strapped universities could use the money. For instance, in Denmark, students from outside the EU and EEA are required to pay tuition fees.
      A working group of the Ministry of Education proposed last year that students from outside the EU and EEA countries should pay tuition fees of EUR 3,500 - 12,000 per term.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Call for annual tuition fees of up to EUR 12,000 for foreign students from outside EU and EEA (24.8.2005)

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