The Stanford No-Tuition Debate: Countries That Offer Free University-Level Education

Plenty of discussion about accessibility to university-level education has surfaced in the U.S. after Stanford made tuition free for families earning less than $125,000 per year – going back to the university's early-years tuition-free concept. However, getting into Stanford is not an easy task (or you might just not like the school, which is fair enough). And, other universities do not offer this kind of financial aid. So, if you do not want to incur in huge debts to get yourself –or your son/daughter- through college, here's a few options that might interest you. Below you will find a list of countries that offer free (tax-funded) university education, and receive foreigners –also for free- with open arms: In Argentina, Norway, Finland, Estonia and Greece, public universities have no tuition, for both national and foreign students. Nonetheless, nationals can also access to a monthly study allowance and loan, which foreigners might or might not be able to get, depending on each case. Sweden also used to offer free university education until recently. Now, this benefit is limited to students coming from countries from the European Community. For its part, Germany offers roughly 1,000 university-level programs in English, in the hopes of attracting potential skilled workers. Some other countries, like Brazil and Slovenia, only charge registration fees, but no tuition. In addition, the cost of living in many regions on these countries is relatively lower than in the U.S. France and Austria, for example, have universities with very low tuition costs (under 750 Euros per semester), and offer tuition exemptions and financial aid for students in need – mostly coming from least developed countries. Other countries –like Chile- also offer free university education, but vacancies are very limited, and admission exams, very hard. So, adding them to the same category as the aforementioned states would be kind of a stretch.