Across Europe, an Outcry Over Paying for College

[kskiska]

LONDON, Feb. 3 - Carrying crude effigies of Prime Minister Tony Blair, about 500 students marched down to Parliament Square last week to protest the government's proposal to allow British universities to raise tuition beginning in 2006.

Similar demonstrations have taken place across Europe in recent months as governments have begun to discuss raising tuition to help meet operating costs at their universities.

The issues differ by country. But in Europe, where higher education is seen as a public good with free or nominal tuition - usually accompanied by government stipends to cover living costs - the idea of asking students or their families to contribute to the costs of their studies has provoked a public outcry.

"The drive to privatize public services, including universities, is very much a European issue," said Mandy Telford, president of the National Union of Students, a British group that has organized dozens of demonstrations against tuition fees, including a national march on London in October that is thought to have been the biggest student demonstration in Britain in decades.

(snip)

"In Britain, we take the European perspective that things basic for life should be provided by the state," he said. "It's not that students expect unlimited free handouts; it's that poor students would be put off from getting the degrees they need."

more…
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/04/education/04student.html

[Wonco_the_Sane]

1. Hmmmm

Always wondered why the best colleges/universities were in the U.S.
:)
:)
:)

[dumpster_baby]

3. "best" for getting students deep into debt.... eom

[depakid]

4. spoken like a true American

I'm guessing (hoping?)that you were being sarcastic, but given that most Americans are so ethnocentric that they can't see beyond their own dysfunctional ways, it's hard to tell.

[SoCalDem]

5. Most "kids" graduate from prestige schools

having had few, if any actual professors as teachers.. Most of their classes are taught by grad students these days.. That pricey ivy league education "ain't what it used to be "

The tenured professors are required to write, publish and research to attract grants and attention..

That leaves then little time to teach..

As to best? I would beg to differ there too.. At most schools kids have to work up to 40 hrs a week so they must take fewer classes and their education takes years longer than it used to..

The European model seems to be a much better way to go. I would gladly have some of my taxes go towards education than for prisons..

Young people who cannot get decent jobs often turn to "other things"..

Pay me now.. or pay me later...

[cprise]

2. Increased funding for prisons

Another of Blair's proclivities.

And I'm sure he sees no correlation.