Tsemppi is concerned with the governmental initiative to introduce tuition fees for non EU students. Looking at the experience of Sweden, we can anticipate a severe decline in applications. At least for some of the international students this law would terminate the opportunities to pursue higher education in Finland. However, the benefits of this initiative for the Finnish educational system are also unclear. The probability of receiving significant revenues from tuition fees remains unexamined.

We decided to participate in the public discussion about the issue and provide some additional data.

First, we conducted a survey among current students at the international master’s programs. Here is the report, that provides some information about their perspectives on the choice of education in Finland.

Then, we examined some of the current media and academic literature on tuition fees, and summarized 10 arguments against tuition fees. Certainly, this is not an exhaustive list and the reasoning both for and against tuition fees could be continued. Though, in our opinion these points are significant enough to say that at the current stage of development tuition fees would not work according to the plans of the policy makers.

The crux of the problem is that possible effects of tuition fees on the international education in Finland are not fully analysed. Therefore, we would appreciate questions, comments and suggestions to the materials that we collected. It would be great to deepen the discussion about this complex issue.

SURVEY REPORT

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByA81u5-8z-XSnJOTzFxRDgyeGc/view?usp=sharing

10 ARGUMENTS AGAINST

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByA81u5-8z-XRloxbVc3T3FaNG8/view?usp=sharing