Quote:
Originally Posted by Nyororin
I have no idea what the costs of university are like in the UK, but if they are similar to the costs in the US - Japan is significantly cheaper.
|
UK is incredibly cheap (comparatively) at least for the undergraduate level (first degree after high school). At present, tuition fees are capped to around £3500 a year (around $5600). So no university can charge above that yearly. Although a recent government legislation is about to come into effect (in the next year or two) which will lift the cap to around £12000 ($19300), at least I think it's around that figure.
But even then, all tuition fees are covered by the government for households earning less than around £30000 ($48000) a year. Most of this is in the form of a student loan, which is repayable as a proportion of the students paycheck after they earn £15000 a year ($24000) out of uni. The interest rate is incredibly low (0% - 1.5% recently) and is equal to the base rate of inflation. If students haven't paid it all off after a certain period of time (I think 25 years?), then the entire remaining loan is waivered. The rest of the tuition fees are covered by grants, which don't need to be repayed.
Students also get maintenance loans and grants which cover accommodation and living costs (again government-paid). I personally get about £5800 ($9300) a year for living costs with half my tuition fees covered by government loan and the other half by a grant.
So UK students really get it easy when it comes to the financial side of university.