A Guide to Tuition-Free Universities for International Students

If you fail to qualify for university scholarships, consider enrolling in Universities offering free tuition or universities with low tuition fees.  Although not as many as before, there still are countries that offer free tuition for international students. scholars4dev.com has compiled information on these countries and provided links to tuition-free Colleges and Universities.

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Tuition Free Universities in Finland

studyinfinland.fi says:

Since university education is funded by the State through the Ministry of Education, students enrolled in regular degree studies pay no tuition fees with exceptions.  If you are enrolled as a non-EU/EEA degree student in a Bachelor’s or Doctoral level programme, the higher education institution will not charge tuition fees.  However, students in both universities and polytechnics have to pay for their books and other materials, plus their accommodation and living expenses.

Some Master’s level programmes are free of charge as well, however, a number of them may carry tuition fees for non-EU/EEA students during a five-year trial period 2010–2014. Depending on the programme, tuition fees may be collected starting from autumn 2010, 2011 or 2012.

If your Master’s programme carries a tuition fee for non-EU/EEA students  and if you are a non-EU/EEA citizen, you are advised to contact the higher education institution in question directly for information on the scholarship opportunities they provide.  Higher education institutions that choose to collect tuition fees in their English-language Master’s programmes will also provide scholarship options for non-EU/EEA students enrolled in tuition-fee carrying Master’s programmes.

Cost of Studying in Finland: Estimated living expenses of a single student in Finland average around 700 Euros per month.

See the list of all Finnish institutions of higher education

See the list of Finnish Universities that offer tuition fee scholarships for Master’s Programme

Source: http://www.studyinfinland.fi/tuition_and_scholarships/tuition_fees

Tuition Free Universities in Austria

If you are an non-EU student, federal/public universities in Austria only charge about 363.36 Euros for tuition fees plus 16.86 Euros for the Austrian Student Union and insurance fee per semester.

If you are a citizen of a least developed country, you are exempted to pay tuition fees at public universities in Austria and only need to pay 17 Euros per semester for the student union fee.

Cost of Studying in Austria: The cost of living for students in Austria is approximately 800 Euros per month which covers accommodation, food, and personal expenses.

See the list of Universities in Austria

Also see the Austria Grants Database

Source: http://www.oead.at/welcome_to_austria/education_research/study_in_austria/universities/tuition_fees/EN/

Tuition Free Universities in Norway

Studyinnorway.no says:

Norwegian universities and state university colleges as a rule do not charge tuition fees for international students. However, students will need to pay a semester fee of NOK 300-600 ($50-100) each semester.

This is applicable for all levels, including undergraduate studies, Masters programmes and Ph.D. programmes. Note that some state universities and university colleges may have tuition fees for a few specialized programmes. Typically these programmes are at the Masters level.

Most private institutions have tuition fees for all their programmes and courses. But the fees are usually significantly lower than those of comparable studies in most other countries. Also, foreign students don’t pay higher tuition fees than Norwegian students.

Cost of Studying in Norway: You should take into consideration that living expenses in Norway are higher than in many other countries.  Living expenses would amount to 89.000 NOK ($15,000) per year.

See the list of Universities and Colleges in Norway

See also the list of  Scholarships in Norway for International Students

Source: http://www.studyinnorway.no/sn/Tuition-Scholarships

Tuition Free Universities in Germany

For many years, higher institutions of education in Germany usually do not charge any tuition fees for undergraduate studies.   But after the Constitutional Court of Germany lifted the ban on tuition fees in January 2005, a number of Federal states now charge tuition fees for undergraduate students.  Postgraduate studies such as most Master’s or PhD has been charging tuition fees for some time now.

Tuition Fees for Undergraduate Programmes

Since the winter semester 2006/07, German universities are now allowed to charge tuition fees for undergraduate study programmes. Currently,  only four out of 16 Federal states charge tuition fees of up to 500 Euros per semester. These states are Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hamburg, and Lower Saxony.  All other federal states only request a certain amount of money as a semester contribution (about 50 euros) but charges no tuition fees. Detailed information on tuition fees in different federal states in Germany can be found at this page.

Tuition fees for Graduate Programmes

In most cases, you need to pay tuition fee for Master’s programmes. The fees vary between 650 Euros and several thousand Euros per Semester. Aside from the tuition fee, each student has to pay a certain amount as a semester contribution to the university (about 50 Euros).

Cost of Studying in Germany: On average, German students spend about 8oo Euros for accommodation, transport, food, and miscellaneous expenses.

See the list of all German Universities and Colleges.

Also see the list of Scholarships in Germany for International Students.

Source: http://www.internationale-studierende.de/en/prepare_your_studies/financing/cost_of_education/

Tuition Free Universities in Sweden

Up until 2010, Sweden has been one of the few countries in Europe that has not charged any types of fees. All students—regardless of nationality—have been funded by Swedish taxpayers.  In 2010, the Swedish parliament has passed a law that charges tuition and application fees for students from non-EU/EEA countries starting  2011/2012 academic year, to be supplemented by scholarship programs. Thus, there are no government-mandated tuition-free universities in Sweden anymore. However, a significant number of Universities still offer full and partial scholarships in the form of tuition waivers for international students.

Find the list of Universities in Sweden that offers scholarships/tuition waivers

See the list of Scholarships in Sweden for International Students

Source: http://www.studyinsweden.se/Home/News-archive/2010/Tuition-fees-from-2011/

Online Tuition-Free Universities

Nowadays, you need not to leave your country to benefit from an international education.  All you need is a computer and internet connection.  Moreover, there are now a number of Universities offering online courses/degree for free.

The first such University is University of the People which is a tuition-free, non-profit, online academic institution dedicated to opening access to higher education globally.    University of the People offers online bachelor’s degree in Management and Computer Science.

This was followed by an initiative of MIT and Harvard called edX which is a learning platform that gives students from any country the opportunity to take free online courses offered by three premier Universities in the US – Harvard, MIT, and UC Berkeley.  Online learners can earn a certificate of completion after completing the course.

Following this trend, a social entrepreneurship company introduced Coursera which is an online learning platform that partners with the top universities in the world to offer online courses in many fields of study for anyone to take, for free.

See the list of Universities offering free online courses