3 ms·

Sweden school is free but students still have a ton of debt

6 points by gamechangr 13y ago

stormpat 13y ago
This is probably true for Finland aswell, i was a student in Helsinki (I have lived in the helsinki metropolitan area for the most part of my life) from 2006-2012, and as any kid in his early 20s i wanted to have my own appartment. So my rent was 650 euros/month, and adding other costs the monthly cost for living was probably over 1200 euros/month. So school was free, and we also get a student benefit from the government for 9 months each year, the benefit is for everyone studying and its about 450 euros/month. So as you see i also had to work at the same time, which was fine. I had a job for the entire time i studied, and got a decent salary. Now, heres the catch. By some idiotic law i cannot make more than 9000 euros per year. If o make more i have to pay back the student benefit. Why? I pay taxes, i get the points in school? So the government is telling me: DONT WORK! This law resuts in people dont working, or working just a little bit and ending up taking student loans, and when they are finished studying many have loads for 1000s of euros. As a student work experience is as valuable as the knowledge from school, i would not hire anyone without work experience, and this is where the finnish government fails.
- gamechangr 13y ago
  Generous to have a "benefit", horrible to be trapped in the system.
pasbesoin 13y ago
Pre-script: I would be interested in better informed descriptions and opinions on the following. -- The title is, per the article itself, a bit misleading. Per the article (I'm not in a position to assess its accuracy), Swedish and Scandinavian students become financially independent younger than in the U.S. and some other countries. Meaning, at the time they attend post-secondary education / university. The tuition and such are free, but independent students have significant living expenses that exceed the student stipend. Further, the amount they can earn through work before losing the stipend is capped. So, students borrow to cover living expenses. Where the debt comparison with the U.S. weakens: This is the key. While Swedish students end up with relatively high levels of debt, the monthly costs of carrying that debt are pretty cheap. (It’s about 3.8% of estimated average monthly income of new graduates, according to one study.) Interest rates are low. They’re set by the government and maintained through subsidies. And the length of repayment is long: 25 years or until the student turns 60. In other words, the Swedish system of student debt is financially manageable and sets students up to begin their lives as viable adults separate from their parents... Across Europe, slumping birth rates represent a long-standing economic, demographic and social problem. Sweden, though, is something of a hotspot for European baby-making. Some see clear links between young people moving out of parental homes early and taking the necessary steps to become parents themselves. (Anyone who has ever lived with mom and dad into their 20s will understand this intuitively.) “Childbearing in developed countries almost invariably takes place after young adults have left their parental home, and home-leaving constitutes a central correlate of fertility and union formation in Europe and other industrialized countries,” wrote sociologists in this 2006 paper.

6 points by gamechangr 13y ago

This is probably true for Finland aswell, i was a student in Helsinki (I have lived in the helsinki metropolitan area for the most part of my life) from 2006-2012, and as any kid in his early 20s i wanted to have my own appartment. So my rent was 650 euros/month, and adding other costs the monthly cost for living was probably over 1200 euros/month. So school was free, and we also get a student benefit from the government for 9 months each year, the benefit is for everyone studying and its about 450 euros/month. So as you see i also had to work at the same time, which was fine. I had a job for the entire time i studied, and got a decent salary. Now, heres the catch. By some idiotic law i cannot make more than 9000 euros per year. If o make more i have to pay back the student benefit. Why? I pay taxes, i get the points in school? So the government is telling me: DONT WORK! This law resuts in people dont working, or working just a little bit and ending up taking student loans, and when they are finished studying many have loads for 1000s of euros. As a student work experience is as valuable as the knowledge from school, i would not hire anyone without work experience, and this is where the finnish government fails.

gamechangr 13y ago
Generous to have a "benefit", horrible to be trapped in the system.

pasbesoin 13y ago

Pre-script: I would be interested in better informed descriptions and opinions on the following. -- The title is, per the article itself, a bit misleading. Per the article (I'm not in a position to assess its accuracy), Swedish and Scandinavian students become financially independent younger than in the U.S. and some other countries. Meaning, at the time they attend post-secondary education / university. The tuition and such are free, but independent students have significant living expenses that exceed the student stipend. Further, the amount they can earn through work before losing the stipend is capped. So, students borrow to cover living expenses. Where the debt comparison with the U.S. weakens: This is the key. While Swedish students end up with relatively high levels of debt, the monthly costs of carrying that debt are pretty cheap. (It’s about 3.8% of estimated average monthly income of new graduates, according to one study.) Interest rates are low. They’re set by the government and maintained through subsidies. And the length of repayment is long: 25 years or until the student turns 60. In other words, the Swedish system of student debt is financially manageable and sets students up to begin their lives as viable adults separate from their parents... Across Europe, slumping birth rates represent a long-standing economic, demographic and social problem. Sweden, though, is something of a hotspot for European baby-making. Some see clear links between young people moving out of parental homes early and taking the necessary steps to become parents themselves. (Anyone who has ever lived with mom and dad into their 20s will understand this intuitively.) “Childbearing in developed countries almost invariably takes place after young adults have left their parental home, and home-leaving constitutes a central correlate of fertility and union formation in Europe and other industrialized countries,” wrote sociologists in this 2006 paper.