(edit title) Would you still choose to study in Sweden? Options

[winterdawn]

If Sweden starts charging tuition for non-EU undergraduate and graduate students, would you still choose Sweden over other coutries, say Germany, France, Australia, or UK? Why and why not? (provided that all other factors are ceteris paribus or in other words, held constant, such as availability of preferred courses, or the quality of education perhaps)

What are the other factors that you consider apart from free tuition, when you decided to study in Sweden?

[Bexxeb]

The Uk already charges rediculous fees to non-EU students. Unless you go to a redbrick with an outstanding reputation within your subject there would be no point choosing the UK over Sweden.

I guess the country you intended to settle down in would play a bigger role though.

[winterdawn]

Yes, well, if Swedish education is no longer free for non-EU students, then it would mean that it is equal in this aspect with most universities

And yes thats a good point, where you want to settle is the more important issue, therefore, what I want to know is what if you intend to leave Sweden after finishing your studies there?

[Bexxeb]

Well, I'm from England and at an English University soI can't really comment as far as that's concerened.

I don't know how it is in other countries but I know degrees from the UK are often highly regarded but there are different types of unis in the UK. Theres polytechnics (courses such as hair dessing with zoology), redbricks, and of course the creme de la creme (Oxbridge, Devon). So you could have a first from Sheffield Hallam and a 2:1 from The University of Sheffield and in most cases the 2:1 would be much more valuable.

So in many cases the availablity of a specific course, and the reputation of the universities providing it, would play a great role in chosing a place/country to study. The only reason I didn't study in Sweden is because there is no comparable UG Linguistics course in Sweden.

[*alejandrov*]

It depends on how much is the tuition fee. If it was as low as Germany's, possibly. If not, probably not. But I probably wouldn't have been interested enough to consider education in Sweden in the first place.

The fact that I chose Sweden has 3 main causes:
1 - It was rated as the country which most effort puts into integrating its migrants (according to the BBC)
2 - There is/was no tuition fee - this got me interested enough to investigate its universities, masters' programmes, etc.
3 - One of the professors in my undergrad degree studied for 6 months at Chalmers and spoke very highly of both Chalmers and Sweden.

So the outcome would be: "probably not". Not because it's not worth it, but because I probably wouldn't have investigated enough.

[Nicole?Pappa?]

Well, I'm from England and at an English University soI can't really comment as far as that's concerened.

I don't know how it is in other countries but I know degrees from the UK are often highly regarded but there are different types of unis in the UK. Theres polytechnics (courses such as hair dessing with zoology), redbricks, and of course the creme de la creme (Oxbridge, Devon). So you could have a first from Sheffield Hallam and a 2:1 from The University of Sheffield and in most cases the 2:1 would be much more valuable.

So in many cases the availablity of a specific course, and the reputation of the universities providing it, would play a great role in chosing a place/country to study. The only reason I didn't study in Sweden is because there is no comparable UG Linguistics course in Sweden.

:shock: Having a degree in the UK is not highly regarded one bit. Any idiot can get in university these days it`s shocking. You should go back 20 or 30 years and see how hard it was to get into university then, now it`s open to everyone, intelligent or not!

[Bexxeb]

:shock: Having a degree in the UK is not highly regarded one bit. Any idiot can get in university these days it`s shocking. You should go back 20 or 30 years and see how hard it was to get into university then, now it`s open to everyone, intelligent or not!

Hence my outlining the fact that there are 3 different types of University. Have you applied recently?

[Puffin]

University Courses in the UK can be pretty low level.

[Moony]

:shock: Having a degree in the UK is not highly regarded one bit. Any idiot can get in university these days it`s shocking. You should go back 20 or 30 years and see how hard it was to get into university then, now it`s open to everyone, intelligent or not!

That would be when I was starting my own stint at university and, frankly, if they accepted me ...

[VikingHumpingWitch]

I'm pretty sure "Devon University" is not as highly regarded as Oxbridge. For a start, Oxbridge is in a class of its own and nowhere else in the UK really comes in the same category, and for another thing I've never even heard of it.

[Bexxeb]

Haha I don't know where I got Devon from I meant to write Durham.

[winterdawn]

Hello! I think my question seems to be a bit vague, I've rephrased it better now putting into consideration Bexx's concern, about course/degree of preference affecting one's choice.

[Nomark]

I used to be a lecturer in a Russell group redbrick and now do the same thing at one of the major unis here. I was pleasantly surprised to find the standard far higher here. The courses I teach are far more demanding and are not dumbed down as they are in the UK.

It is often reported that UK universities enjoy a good reputation abroad. This is certainly true when discussing research output. However, undergraduate degrees are typically regarded (by my colleagues at European universities at least) as being less rigorous than degrees from mainland Europe. Although my observations concern the teaching of the sciences I did hear from a linguist that the typical foreign language vocabulary size of a modern language graduate from a UK institution is around 50% of that of a graduate from an equivalent EU university.

A UK student could do worse than study at a decent uni in Sweden. Its also a bit silly to slate the reputation of Swedish institutions. Given the size of the country, Swedish universities have a good presence in the international university league tables.

[Nomark]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMol...739379920080617

There is some truth to what he's alleging.

[le fromage]

i think if swedish universities start charging they will end up more in the 'business' of education rather than the 'knowledge' aspect of it. for me one of the best things about swedish universities was that the focus was not on the money. i dont know how it is in the UK or germany but i feel like in the US universities only care about the money. i have taken very few classes at home where it seemed that the teacher actually cared about the knowledge i was gaining. when money starts to become an issue i think humanity becomes lost. the swedish universities seemed to treat me as a human with thoughts and ideas. the US universities saw me as a number that needed to memorize facts and fill in dots on a sheet and think like everyone around me. maybe im glorifying sweden's education system in comparison to my shitty univeristy in the US...


it seems to be a problem with the over educated and under employed...but then i guess its better to have smart people hanging around unemployed than idiots.