Plug pulled on foreign fee policy

The Finnish Government has dropped its plan to levy tuition fees on students from outside the European Union and European Economic Area despite widespread support for the policy from businesses and universities, writes Raili Seppänen.

Last year, a working group appointed by the Ministry of Education recommended university and polytechnic fees of up to €12,000 (£8,330) a year. But Antti Kalliomaki, Minister of Education, suspended the proposal. He blamed the delay on a lack of progress with a scholarship programme aimed at gifted overseas students from poor families.

While this was always deemed an essential element of the policy, there is speculation that the real reason behind the suspension is political.

Internal squabbles within the ruling Social Democratic Party make it unlikely that the Bill will be passed.

While there was no one available for comment at the ministry, Markku Koponen, training policy manager at the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK), claimed that Finnish businesses were keen to support students through scholarships. But, according to Mr Koponen, the task was made more difficult because companies do not receive adequate tax relief on their investment. The limit for tax relief is €20,000 a year per company, but many argue that e1 million would be a more realistic level.

Opponents of the tuition proposal had expressed fears that the introduction of fees for overseas students would inevitably lead to an erosion of free tuition for domestic students but the EK rejects this view. "Degree courses up to masters level should remain free," Mr Koponen insisted. But he noted that it was no longer economically viable to continue with current practice and referred to the EK's updated training and employment policy, published last month, which suggests that higher education should not remain a commodity provided free of charge to anyone wishing to take up study of one degree after another.

The EK and other organisations will continue to lobby the Government in the hope that their arguments in favour of tuition fees will ultimately succeed. But any major changes are unlikely to occur until after the next general election in March 2007.