Masters In Sweden - No tuition fees

Hello World of TSR

Just pondering over a few questions with regards to the title of this post.

I am currently a second year student studying Biomedical Science and thought it best to start researching routes of furthering my education after I complete my third year.

While looking through master programmes on a number of different British based universities I turned my attention towards some abroad and ended up researching Swedish universities such as;

Karolinska, Lund, Umea and Uppsala

What interested me most about these is the fact that as a member of the EU I wouldn't be required to pay tuition or application fees to study at these universities.

I was just wondering if anyone has any more information of this sort of thing as it seems quite strange to me.

Has anyone done a masters or PhD abroad in sweden?
What is the cost of living there like?
Are there hidden catches?

The opportunity seems remarkly good and I'd be glad if anyone has already done research into this sort of situation and can help.

Any information would be appreciated
Many Thanks
Jacobdatz

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1

sj27

Cost of living in Sweden is one of the highest in the world. Stockholm regularly makes it onto the lists of most expensive cities, and I don't imagine the rest of the country is hugely cheaper. someone who has lived there may be able to add more info, but even if there if is a Stockholm premium like there is a London one in the UK, the last list I looked at had Stockholm #5 in the world vs London down at #15. I was in Stockholm last year and can vouch for it being incredibly expensive.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 2

sevendaughters

I've got a friend at Lund, she says it's awesome and the money aspect is manageable. You have to figure some debts will be accrued at this stage in your life, at least with living expenses they can be somewhat managed.

Reply 3

Jacobdatz

Original post by sevendaughters

Does this person comment on here i'd love to hear from her
Is she a foreign student or uk and over there etc

:smile:

Reply 4

sevendaughters

Original post by Jacobdatz

Does this person comment on here i'd love to hear from her
Is she a foreign student or uk and over there etc

:smile:

She's not on here. She's a British student doing a 1+3 Masters to Ph.D at Cambridge, but she's spending a year in Lund. She says that the culture doesn't involve drinking so much out there and tends to be a bit more 'wholesome', so that's one major university expense cut out. Day to day living is a little more expensive but not extortionately so.

Reply 5

kka25

Free tuition fees. Very attractive :frown:

I wonder how they could get the tuition for free where here it costs truck loads of money :s-smilie:

Reply 6

Saoirse:3

Original post by kka25

Free tuition fees. Very attractive :frown:

I wonder how they could get the tuition for free where here it costs truck loads of money :s-smilie:

Because the Government in Sweden is the social democrats, rather than Conservatives :dice:

, Fib Dems or 'Steady Eddie's' Labour Party.

Reply 7

sevendaughters

Original post by kka25

Free tuition fees. Very attractive :frown:

I wonder how they could get the tuition for free where here it costs truck loads of money :s-smilie:

Graduates earn ****loads, it's an investment. It used to be that way here too.

Reply 8

Mr Dangermouse

Do they teach in English?

Reply 9

kka25

Original post by sevendaughters

Graduates earn ****loads, it's an investment. It used to be that way here too.

Really? What happened? Who changed it?

Original post by CLS94

Because the Government in Sweden is the social democrats, rather than Conservatives :dice:

, Fib Dems or 'Steady Eddie's' Labour Party.

Are you sure it's the Conservatives or is it the Labour?

Reply 10

sevendaughters

Original post by kka25

Really? What happened? Who changed it?

The Labour government instituted the first wave of student fees in 1998, expanded it in 2004, and then the Conservatives have made the fees triple.

Reply 11

linzico

I don't know much about Sweeden but I've found this to be the case at the various Belgian and French universities I'm considering a masters for. The way I see it is, you're probably gonna pay the same amount either way. You could shell out a few grand to do the masters in the UK whereas you could pay the same amount, maybe slightly more for the experience of going abroad. Plus with the fees in the UK a lot of uni's require you to pay them upfront, whereas the cost would probably be more manageable if you're just paying for your living expenses monthly for example, abroad.

Reply 12

marcusfox

Original post by Jacobdatz

I reckon that if you were doing a PhD in Sweden, you'd have to be reasonably competent in Swedish, and not just ordinary Swedish, but technical Swedish suitable for Biochemistry.

I was considering a year in Europe addition to my degree and I had to become reasonably competent in technical French. In any case, that didn't end up going through, because it was a 3 year BSc vs a 4 year BSc - I probably would have taken it if it had given me MChem, like their Year in Industry course would have done.

But I still would have had my courses delivered in French.

Reply 13

janjanmmm

In Germany NOBODY pays tuition, including non-EU residents. Same in Switzerland. Used to be like that in Sweden, but then they decided not to spend government money on people from non-EU countries. Looks like if the trend continues they may start charging non-Swedish students soon enough.

Reply 14

kka25

Original post by janjanmmm

I'm just incredibly jealous of this lol =/

Reply 15

Arekkusu

Original post by kka25

Free tuition fees. Very attractive :frown:

I wonder how they could get the tuition for free where here it costs truck loads of money :s-smilie:

Because they tax their citizens to the hilt. There is much to be said in praise of the Nordic social model, but on the flip side I hear everyone in Norway, at least, has their name, phone number and salary on a central database that anyone can look up.

We subsidise our undergraduates through a graduate tax (also known as tuition fees, though it is a misnomer). The tripling of fees has allowed the government to take 50% expense off their balance sheets, but given that the repayment threshold has been raised, the new system is actually much kinder to graduates or those on low incomes.

If graduates used to be an investment, the reason they are not now is due to the depreciation of exam grades. This is probably to do with the fact that exam success no longer relies on recall but rather on applying problem-solving and other soft skills.

You could make a case for computers being the reason why the focus has changed, they can remember all the boring stuff for us.

Anyone wanting to do a Master's here will be put off by tuition fees between 6 and 12k - and these are proper tuition fees, payable up front unless you get funding. However, in general, cheaper European universities are not as well regarded. Sweden, Germany and Switzerland come to mind as particularly good choices.

Reply 16

username839699

Original post by janjanmmm

Not in all universities though. Goettingen, for example, charge ~700 euros per semester but that is of course, negligible, in contrast to the ~12k pounds non-EU students pay in England. If I'm not mistaken, transport-fees are also included in this fee, no?

Reply 17

no-fat-chicks

Original post by Jacobdatz

look at Universities in Denmark as courses are free to EU Citizens too and there are a lot of courses in English.
Also another important point to consider is the cost of living as I'm not sure if Student finance will loan to you if it's abroad but it's worth phoning up and enquiring.

Reply 18

marcusfox

Original post by no-fat-chicks

I'll save him the time and money right now and tell him that there's not a cat in hell's chance. The only way they will pay is if it is a year abroad at another university as part of your course being studied at a UK degree awarding institution.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 19

kka25

Original post by Arekkusu

Why on earth they would do that? :eek:

I do not know if this is a valid question but wouldn't free stuff like this makes the country a socialist one?

Anyone wanting to do a Master's here will be put off by tuition fees between 6 and 12k - and these are proper tuition fees, payable up front unless you get funding. However, in general, cheaper European universities are not as well regarded. Sweden, Germany and Switzerland come to mind as particularly good choices.