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Curious: how hard is it for people to get access to free university education there? My home country - Brazil - offers free university education, and actually
by cesarbs 10y ago
Curious: how hard is it for people to get access to free university education there?
My home country - Brazil - offers free university education, and actually our federal universities are the best in the country. While there are quotas for certain socially disadvantaged groups of people (e.g. racial quotas), the sad reality is that regular seats are taken mostly by rich kids whose parents can afford to pay them prep courses - because the admissions process is incredibly difficult. So our free higher education system ends up doing a poor job in helping upward social mobility, and people who are not well-off end up going to private colleges whose schedules allow them to work and pay for their tuition.
- Broken_Hippo 10y agoIf Finland is like Norway, and I understand the system correctly (I'm an immigrant) that isn't much of an issue. Culture here allows for free time for kids (not much homework), and so long as folks can pass the admission tests and there is space, they can go. The biggest issue might be living expenses - but there is a (too low) stipend and loans. The loans can be grants if you don't have money or can be forgiven in some fields if you move and work up north for a certain amount of time.
- dharma1 10y agoDepends on the subject you want to study - as the govt pays for education the policymakers influence the course sizes to funnel students towards subjects they deem beneficial. It can be difficult to get in, sometimes too much so, people try multiple times. But the education and the degrees themselves in return are very high quality - many universities in the UK take in almost everyone and the degrees don't really teach the students that much. There are almost no private colleges in Finland so I haven't seen the phenomenon you describe.