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The proposal to introduce a tuition fee to students from third countries in order to study in the country has caused debate in the Norwegian parliament.
According to University World News, the proposal that is expected to be approved by Norwegian authorities and to further be implemented by 2023 has received criticism, being called a discriminatory measure toward vulnerable groups, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
The Minister of Research and Higher Education in Norway, Ola Borten Moe, said that the measure is reciprocal considering that Norwegian students pursuing their academic careers abroad, as a rule, have to pay tuition fees.
“There is no reason for this to be different in Norway. Norway shall still be open for students from abroad, but we think that they should also pay for their studies here,” he said at the presentation of the government’s budget on 6 October 2022.
He also argued that the reason why third-country nationals pick Norway as a study destination isn’t related to the lack of costs but rather the quality of education obtained here. In addition, he noted that having fewer international students will enable Norwegian students to have more study places and housing, as the latter has become a serious issue recently.
The government estimates that tuition fee income will be €7.1 million in 2023, increasing to €28.6 million in 2025. The savings to higher education is estimated to be €115 million. On the other hand, the number of international students is expected to drop by 70 per cent, making it possible for 2,600 new study places to open for two-year courses for Norwegian, EU, EEA, and Swiss students.
There were about 19,000 international students in Norway in 2019, with the top ten countries of origin being China (834), Iran (650), Syria (623), Pakistan (525), India (514), Nepal (501), United States (424), the Philippines (322), Bangladesh (274) and Russia (273).
On the other hand, Emmanuel Kofi Ovon Babatunde, senior advisor at the Division of Research and Innovation at the University of Bergen, who was a student and came from a third country, estimated the plan as discriminatory.
“The shocking thing about it is that it is targeted against the most vulnerable groups – those coming from developing countries in Africa… It was bad enough that they decided to deny Africans the funding scheme to take their degrees in Norway. But to introduce a fee and to even threaten the universities not to undercut these fees is an encroachment on the autonomy of the university as an independent institution,” he told University World News.
The tuition-free education in Norway is causing citizens about €472.8 million every year in taxes, with 25,000 students pursuing their academic careers in the country, which on average costs €188,852.