4 ms·

Income tax is not flat. It peaks at 50% (of the salary > $80K). Also education is free for everyone. Very few attend private unis.

• Dewie 13y ago
  > Also education is free for everyone. Very few attend private unis. Exactly. It's really misleading to readers who might be from a country where private higher education is more of the norm to just say that 'most families can not afford private universities', since most people who take higher education go to a public uni/college. And most people don't even want to go to a private university. An exception might be Handelshøyskolen BI, a college for business administration and the like. But I've never heard of the cost of that being a systemic issue.
  • paulhauggis 13y ago
    "And most people don't even want to go to a private university." If I'm paying that much in taxes and most goods and services are really expensive..how could I afford this? I think this is probably why most people aren't going to a private school..unless you are extremely rich...which I don't think is even possible in Norway with all of the taxes currently in place.
    • gizzlon 13y ago
      AFAIK, most private schools also receive some funding by the government (if they want). You seem to believe that private schools are always better, but at least in my field, the top public universities are regarded as better than any private school.
      • paulhauggis 13y ago
        "AFAIK, most private schools also receive some funding by the government (if they want)." If this is the case, I wouldn't really consider it private.
        • vidarh 13y ago
          They are privately owned, and privately operated. It is simply that they receive a public subsidy of student costs if they meet certain criteria. This is quite common elsewhere too. E.g. UK universities.
    • dagw 13y ago
      The private universities are rarely better than the public ones outside of a couple of narrow fields. Certainly if your want to study a STEM subject, Economics, Medicine or most humanities the public universities are at least as good and probably better than the private ones. The only area where private universities arguably have an edge is in Business and Management subjects. And even the most expensive private universities are 'only' $10-15k a year, which while certainly a lot of money, is quite cheap compared to the US. Combine this with a relatively high minimum wage and it's quite possible to pay the tuition with a part time job while studying.
    • vidarh 13y ago
      No, most people do not want to go to a private school. Amongst many Norwegians, going to private school for lower education is looked down upon and seen to imply you're either a stuck up snob or dumb enough to need special tuition. And going to a private school for higher education is common only if you want specialised courses (MBA) or for some reason want to study abroad but is by no means economically impossible for most families. As for cost: Salaries are also so high that a very substantial portion of families could afford to ship their son or daughter off to even a top level private US or UK university (especially given that part of that too can be subsidised by Norwegian government subsidies, and part financed with low cost student loans from the government) (Edit: this has been even more true the last few years, as the financial crisis has made dollars and pounds dirt cheap from a Norwegian point of view)
    • Dewie 13y ago
      You clearly don't know what you're talking about.
      • paulhauggis 13y ago
        yes. Please provide more intelligent and informative points to this discussion.
        • Dewie 13y ago
          I was lucky in that others already had done it for me.