The tuition free education theme day is celebrated at all universities today, the 28th November, with a focus on the on-going tuition fee experiment. Student Unions and the National Union of University Students in Finland (SYL) campaign and organize events throughout the country. Here at Aalto AYY organizes an information campaign online and in student restaurants.
AYY’s policy has been openness about what we know about the tuition fee experiment in Aalto. Our sincere wish is that next spring, when the Finnish government decides whether the fees will be lifted or made a permanent part of the system, the decision will be based on facts, not random feelings-based judgments. This is how the best political decisions are made.
Again only one student to pay full tuition fee
So, how do the facts look like this academic year? Now that the new students have arrived to Aalto, it seems that for the second time a large share of accepted students decided not to arrive. Again, we have only one new student who pays the entire tuition fee.
Students accepted to Aalto from non-EU/EEA countries and students who confirmed their study place in the autumn of 2011 and 2012:
| scholarship category | 2011 accepted | 2011 arrived | 2012 accepted | 2012 arrived |
| gets 8000 € | 8 | 8 | 7 | 3 |
| pays nothing | 27 | 20 | 29 | 6 |
| pays 4000 € | 32 | 9 | 20 | 4 |
| pays 8000 € | 14 | 1 | 22 | 1 |
| total | 81 | 38 | 78 | 14 |
What’s new compared with last year is that a surprisingly large proportion of those students who were granted a scholarship did not accept their study place. However, the share of students that did not arrive is larger in the categories where students are required to pay the fee themselves. This seems to indicate that the fees are deterring international students. The graph below shows the effect of the fees to the attractiveness of the study place.
Image 1: Tuition fees deter students
The smaller the scholarship and the bigger the fee, the smaller the share of accepted students that arrive in Aalto.
Accepted students (red) and students who arrived (violet) by scholarship category (receives 8000 in scholarship; pays nothing; pays 4000; pays 8000). Students from outside the EU/EAA area accepted to fee-charging programs in Aalto in the autumn of 2011 and 2012.
Revenue from the tuition fee experiment is still much smaller than the costs caused by scholarships, administration and investments in the fee-charging programs and student services.
Image 2: Why does the tuition fee experiment bring more costs than revenue?
Aalto University, academic years 2011–2013.
Tuition fees (blue); health insurance for students in fee-charging programs (grey); an additional language course for students in fee-charging programs (brown); additional grant for developing the fee-charging programs (red); scholarships (violet).
Since the fees deter students, the university must try to attract them by investing more in scholarships, service level and fee-charging programs. There are also administrative costs, mostly salaries, which are not included in the calculation.
The danger is that as the fees are driving students away, the higher education institutions are forced to invest more and more resources to attracting paying students because of their internationalization goals – even when the same resources would be better used in improving the quality of studies for all the students. At the same time, students in the fee-charging programs become a privileged group in relation to other students.
Therefore the fees are not a way to save taxpayers money. Especially as many international students themselves are future taxpayers. According to Statistics Finland, 49 % of international degree students had found a job in Finland one year after graduation. The taxes paid by this group are a much more significant amount of money than the costs of educating those students that left the country. If we drive them away by charging fees, we are shooting ourselves in the foot.
Read more:
HS vieraskynä: Lukukausimaksu ei tuo Suomeen rahavirtaa (in Finnish)
AYY blog: Scarce results from the tuition fee trial
Hanna Sauli
AYY Specialist, International Affairs