US universities top list in study fee survey

29 April 2004

HAMBURG – Universities in the United States top the list as the most expensive in the world, according to a global survey of tuition fees.

Fees at US universities and colleges have risen more than 40 percent during the past 10 years, the German magazine Campus and Career reports in its latest edition.

Fees in the US average USD 4,000 a year. But top private universities have fees of USD 18,000 and upwards. The Harvard Business School demands USD 33,650 a year, putting it in a class of its own, the report said.

In the Netherlands fees were on average EUR 1,445 (USD 1,711) and in Britain EUR 1,600 (USD 1,900). But as from 2006, British universities will be allowed to increase fees to up to EUR 4,400 per year (USD 5,211).

In Australia fees were between EUR 2,300 and EUR 3,800 a year (USD 2,700 and USD 4,500) with medical and legal courses the most expensive.

Finland takes the top spot when it comes to subsidising higher level education.

Most students receive for five years a subsidy for housing and living costs, with no tuition fees at universities apart from a small semester fee, the magazine reports. But foreign students have to learn Finnish first.

DPA

Subject: German news