Essay
Comparing tuition fees in England and Sweden
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- Anglia Ruskin University (ARU)
Comparing tuition fees in England and Sweden
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A critical essay comparing the topic of tuition feesfocusing on the effects on enrolment and applications in
England and Sweden
A Tuition fee is a payment that is charged to a student or parent by an
educational institution which assists with the funding of their higher
education. In England tuition fees are usually paid upfront in full to the
educational institution. The funding can go towards; staff and faculty, course
offers, equipment, libraries and computers, facility upkeep and to provide a
comfortable learning experience for all students enrolled at the university.
However In most countries, especially in non-English-speaking countries,
there are no or only minimal tuition fees for all forms of education, including
university. In this essay I will be discussing how the underlying ideologies of
England and Sweden have shaped the differences in tuition fees; focusing on
the affects it has caused to enrolment and applications for higher education
institutes in both Countries.
In England higher education was free for all until 1998 when ‘The Teaching
and Higher Education Act’ was passed into law setting a yearly tuition fee of
£1000. Just 5 years later secretary Charles Clarke announced plans for
variable top up fees, going back on David Blunkett’s word from 2001 when he
promised there would be no top up fees if labour won the next election. It
was then, in 2004, Tony Blair faced his biggest backbench rebellion as prime
minister in a vote for top-up fees, winning by just five hands. Soon after the
vote, the upper limit that students had to pay per year was set at £3,000
(only be repaid once the graduate is in a job earning over £15,000) and by
2006 the decision to implement these fees was welcomed by universities and
began in the autumn term (Blake, H. 2010). However, only 4 years later, Lord
Browne submitted a review suggesting undergraduates doing a 3 year
degree should pay even more towards their degrees. The review proposed
that a £21,000 minimum should be paid towards each student’s education,
which was voted in and implemented just two years after the initial review,
starting for students beginning in September 2012 (Browne, J. 2010).
The continuous raising of tuition fees in England is shaped by the underlying
neoliberalism government which is completely different to the social
democracy in Sweden. Before 2011 Swedish university was entirely taxpayer
funded and has always been one of the few countries in Europe that has not
charged any types of fees. This is because social democracy benefits the
individual instead of the government; they believe in equal opportunities and
that everybody has the right to an education. Unlike England, Sweden is able
to give free education to all due to the charging higher taxes to Swedish
citizens. So in the past, Swedish taxpayers have funded all students,
regardless of nationality. However, as global competition for talent is
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, increasing, the government wants Swedish universities to compete on equal
terms with universities in other countries and is reallocating money to award
higher education institutions that show particular excellence. In 2011 the
Swedish parliament passed a law outlining various fees for students not from
a EU/EEA country, starting in the 2012 academic year. As non-EU/EEA
students add value to the Swedish educational system, the government also
introduced two scholarship programs available to bachelor’s and
master’s students in order to seem more attractive to foreign students
(studyinsweden.se, 2010).
The way in which the neoliberalism government shapes the tuition fee
agenda in England is because it sees education as a service and wants to
make money and maximize the shareholders profits by privatising the
schools, rather than focus on providing a public service. Neoliberals see
schools and universities as a business, for example they want high success
rates and to fulfil learning outcomes so that schools will score higher on
league tables giving the self-interested individual a better choice of the free
market (Hill, D. & Kumar, R. 2009). This affects inequality and empowers the
capitalist position in our society as it influences trade, meaning higher class
get more choices and reproduce their predefined knowledge and behaviours.
In contrast to this, Social democrats believe change is key to growth in equal
opportunities but also realise it is gradual and incremental. The argument for
equality has generally been based in the rejection of the consequence of
inequality, for example poverty and economic inefficiency ( Sejersted, F.
2011). In England the welfare state is seen as a way of reducing inequality
between the classes but social democrats place a bigger emphasis on equal
opportunities in education which is why Sweden allows every citizen in the EU
access to a free education, giving them real choices to fulfil their potential in
their society. Education in Sweden is used to benefit the individual, whilst
promoting a healthy society and gives every person has the right to achieve
their fullest potential.
Neoliberalism says only student success at schools gives self-interested
choice on the educational market and although this is not the traditional
principle of school, educational settings in England still use league tables to
show success rates which allow parents to decide where to send their
children. In England the lower and working class citizens are meant to believe
they have the same choices on the free market as higher classes but
realistically parents choose schools for their children by location,
environment and cost, meaning the ‘free market’ to them is just a delusion
(Hill, D. & Kumar, R. 2009). Similarly to the notion of self-interested choice,
social democrats often discuss autonomy as a basic human need. This is
comparable to self-interested choice as it allows people to make their own
decisions based on predetermined knowledge which is important for the
individual in Sweden in terms of education. “Without autonomy, or the
freedom to be able to decide and choose, human beings are arguably
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