So let’s say I graduate from high school (or the equivalent in your country), I’m a mediocre student but I really want to go to a university…what are my options?
**EDIT**: Thanks for those that have responded so far; I’m not asking for me (I already have a university education and I’ve been working for years), I just wanted to know how the education system in your country works when not-very bright or applied people still want an university education and assuming that this person is a local or someone from an EU country.
So in most of your countries someone like that still have the option to go, but not to any grade they want but something that’s a better match to their abilities (please clarify if that’s not the case) and they might have to pay at least some tuition? Also, it means that if someone is very bright and ace the entrance test they enjoy no-tuition paid education?
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With mediocre grades you can till take the *Högskoleprov* test and if you score high, you can get accepted to hard-to-get-into educations like dentist, doctor, things like that. “Regular” educations are still availible to you with or without the test. There’s no cost to you, you get a small amount of money from the government to study and if you wish you can take a government education loan so you can study and still you know, eat. You pay that back over the course of years and years at a low interest, it’s a good deal.
University isn’t free, no matter your grades or education, but it’s cheap for everyone (a couple of 100 CHF/semester). University fees are never the issue when it comes to finances for students; it’s the housing.
Unless you happen to have grown up in a city with a University you’ll have to move out from your parents, find (and pay) your own flat, maybe you’ll do so together with friends to split the cost. That’s easily as much, or more, money per month as university is per semester.
There are of course private foundations (etc.) that help with these costs, but AFAIK it’s quite rare for students to have such assistance. They can be grade based or based on something else.
Graduating high school in a big exam called “Matura” is the formal requirement for university. And even if you don’t there’s other ways of getting that eligibility later.
But there’s some university programs where the candidates vastly outnumber the available slots, so those have entrance exams which can be very hard – after all they’re meant to keep most people out. Medicine has an acceptance rate around 10%. School grades are not considered in the process.
Everyon choosing public uiversity of course (they have much better reputation than the private ones anyway) in Czech, meaning no tuition, unless you study longer than the standard time + some 1 or 2 years for your program. Unless they changed it and I don’t know about it, you pay if you choose to study in other language. The grades don’t matter for most schools and the official requirement is highschool diploma (maturita) which you can get basically after any type of secondary education, only with some types it’s extra program after you finish the regular one. Then the requirements are up to each university.
Secondary school students in Malta are prepared to sit for a set of subjects at ‘Ordinary Level’, more commonly referred to as the O-levels. Education up to the end of secondary school is mandatory for everyone. Students who pass a minimum of 6 O-levels, including a pass in Maltese, English, Maths and at least one Science subject, can choose to continue studying for a further 2 years at Advanced level (A-levels) and Intermediate level.
The general entry requirements for the University of Malta require a pass in two A-levels, 3 Intermediates and Systems of Knowledge. The A-levels and the Intermediates chosen, must include at least one language,one humanities subject and one science subject. Different courses may specify which subjects are required for the course. Some may require more strict entry requirements. For example the course for medicine requires that the student achieves at least a B in both Chemistry and Biology in the same sitting. Most courses, however, are not as strict, requiring only a C or better in the relevant subjects.
You can apply to any public university no matter your grades. A committee will still take a look at your application and decide if they want you, since usually more people apply than there are places available it can play a part in whether you get in or not. But you can make several demands to different universities so you usually end up somewhere, even if it’s not your first choice.
The price depends on how rich your parents are, but even for the ones who have the means it’s never an insane amount. If your family’s below a certain threshold it’s entirely free. You’ll have however to pay for housing as universities aren’t always in the most accessible areas and many of them don’t have university housing attached. You can get some financial help, again depending on how much money your parents have, but it’s never enough to live on, so if your parents aren’t ready/capable of helping you you can kiss uni goodbye anyway.
Uni isn’t free it’s supposed to be affordable and subsidies can be applied for if needed.
Studying medicine in flanders requires an entrance exam. Studying engineering science requires a non binding aptitude test to gauge skills and inform your decision but if failed you can still enter the program.
Somebody else commented on the costs in Switzerland, but the conditions are these:
With a Matura (= high school degree), you can go to every university in the country without any other issue. One exception are fields such as medicine that do a Numerus Clausus test.
With a Berufsmatura (apprenticeship instead of high school + some extra effort) you can visit a Fachhochschule, which is a bit like a University but more practical. Engineers, artists and architects are made there, for example.
The visit a university with a Berufsmatura, you need to do another course plus a test first.
in Italy fees and scholarships are progressive according to your family’s economic situation.
It’s free for people below a certain level while richer people pay the whole amount (which is never more than 4-5k anyway).
Same with scholarships: in most universities if you have top marks but come from a rich family you won’t be eligible to ask for a scholarship/place in a student house. They are reserved for “poorer” students
Degree wise: some have tests, your high school grades only matter in the moment you scored the same as somebody else
It depends, for the hard to get into education like doctor, or lawyer etc, you need to redo some tests, and even then i may be hard.
For things like engineering it is much easier to get in, but you risk dropping out if you cant pass the exams.
You don’t even need to start out with high school in order to end up with a PhD.
If you e.g. want to become an electrician, you can sign a 4 year apprentice contract with a company when you have completed 9th grade (at 15-16 yo). Then you get salary during the 4 years, including school periods, starting out at ~$10 pr. Hour, and ending at ~$20 pr. Hour.
When you have become an electrician you get $30 pr. Hour.
There are different ways to add a high school exam, one method is to sign a 5 year apprentice contract instead, go to school for one full year, or study in the evening for several years after work.
When you have the high school exam you can start on study engineering on a university, with free tuition, and $1000 each month as ‘allowance’ from the state.
In Finland, technically it’s available for everyone who has completed some sort of secondary level education (whether it’s a general education or a vocational track).
However, more often than not, there are more applicants than there are study places. As such, it starts to favor those who received high marks from correct subjects in their secondary education’s final exams (= ylioppilaskirjoitukset) (yes, it matters a lot these days which exams you do).
For those with more mediocre grades, they have the option of entrance exams; a path through which a decent amount of people get accepted in most study programs. However, for bachelor’s level, they have definitely begun favoring (secondary education’s) high marks from correct subjects.
So it’s gotten more challenging to get in unless a) you’ve figured out what you want to study at the beginning of your secondary education, b) focused on appropriate/correct subjects, and c) received quite high marks on the final exams.
Edit: Tertiary education is not also entirely free. Every year you have to pay a semester/year fee + healthcare fee, which amount to roughly 116 euros.
Edit 2: That semester/year fee varies between universities. I based the estimate at my own uni’s cost. The healthcare fee is the same for all the students.
All public universities are for free. But in order to get there you need to have good results in final high school exams and the places in each faculty in every university are limited, so only the best will get there. And there are different requirements everywhere. For example, when I was going to university to study pharmacy, I had to take final high school exams in biology and chemistry apart from those mandatory ones (Polish, maths, and one foreign language).
In some faculties the competition is really bad, so if you want to be a doctor you have to work your ass off and score in biology and chemistry as high as possible.
Free for everyone basically. Meaning, for high school maybe you gotta pay a couple hundreds euros per year, and for university it’s progressive, but in general is very little. For the most rich you got to pay 3000 per year
Depends how many students apply to the programme you want to study. For medicine you always need a lot of points, so only those with very good grades can get in. Some programmes have more space than applicants, so anyone that has completed necessary high school education with positive marks can get in. Some, like architecture and theatre play, requier ‘talent test’. If you don’t pass the test, you can’t get in.
Studying is free, you need to pay entrance fees, idk how much it is now, between 30-40€ probably and of course student housing if you need it, transportation – which of course is cheaper for students, and food, which again is heavily subsidised.
Yes “daily study” is free, you study during regular days, from Monday to Friday(although people always wanna have longer weekends lol). You still gotta pay for books and food/dormitories(unless you live close). “Distancne studium” is only on Friday and Saturday, back when I was at school it was 500 € per semester. This was mainly for working adults.
Even people with really bad grades(4) can enter University, if they have Maturita.
Entrance exams depends on the faculty, othwerwise(no entrance exams) it depends on your grades(average). So they first take students with better grades, ofc these ones often go to best University possible(most people try to enter at least 2-3 Universities), so it opens spaces for worse students.
Anyway first year always have subjects(usually 1 each semester), that are much harder than the rest for “filtering” students. So even if students, that are not very good pass entrance exams etc…first year is what will usually stop them. For example in my field of study it was chemistry(different type for each semester) and in my sister’s fied of study it was anatomy, in my friend’s it was math etc…
In England you pay around £9000 a year in tuition fees, which you take out a loan for. On top of that you can take out a ‘maintenance loan’ that supposedly covers your living costs, although in practice it barely covers your rent (I think if you’re poor enough that maintenance loan becomes a grant which you don’t have to repay). Then when you start working you make a monthly repayment depending on your salary. I earn around 2300 euros a month net and my monthly repayment is £96 (although I’m on the old system when tuition fees were ‘only’ £3400 a year, they restructured the system in 2012).
You can apply to a maximum of 5 universities through a system known as UCAS. Then those universities look at your GCSE grades (exams typically in 9-10 subjects you do at 16) and sometimes your AS-Levels (4-5 exams you do at 17), for some subjects such as Medicine or Law you’ll have to take an additional specialist exam and then some universities might interview you. If your grades are good enough and you pass the interview stage they’ll make you a ‘conditional offer’ where they’ll admit you on condition that you get a certain set of grades in your A-Levels at the end of the year. The minimum grade requirements and the conditional offer will usually depend on how prestigious the university is and how many people apply for that particular degree course. So if you have mediocre grades you wouldn’t be able to study medicine at Oxford, but you might be able to study, say, Medieval Russian at London Metropolitan University. Out of the 5 unis you originally applied to, you then have to select two choices: you first choice and an ‘insurance’ choice which has lower entry requirements, in case you miss the grades for your first choice.
If you fail to get the A-Level grades for your insurance option, there’s a system known as ‘clearing’ in which various universities publish all the places that are still available, and then there’s a giant rush to snap up the place you want as quickly as possible.
Failing that, I guess there might be the Open University, which is a specialist university that offers degrees to older people who’ve already started working and maybe want a change in career path. As far as I know they don’t have minimum entry requirements, just recommended prerequisites.
You get up to five years of uni for free if you’re ordinarily resident in Scotland, provided you meet the entry requirements (grades etc). If you don’t meet the entry requirements you aren’t getting into uni no matter how much you pay.
There are other options. You can go to college (different from a university, closer to what the Americans would call a community college) after leaving school, study at a lower level and build up to uni entry requirements (or keep on going and potentially get second or third year entry).
Going to university, realize that you’re not good enough and drop out/being expelled cause failed twice (or thrice if you change of cursus)
Exception: medecine/dentist/vet (?)/some engineers/arts where you must pass an entrance exam
You would always be able to access some degree in some public university, but the specific degree and specific university depend on your grades.
Students take nationwide university entrance exam at the end of high school. With their grade in this exam combined with their HS grades they can apply to specific degrees in the universities they like. Degrees have limited spots and they are assigned by grade, so if yours is mediocre, you will probably not get into the degree you want. But there will probably be available spots at some other (less popular) degree.
In this situation, most people still choose to attend university, in my experience, even if it means going into a degree they weren’t that enthusiastic about. Many of them try to switch degrees to the one they really wanted after a couple of years (there is a system that allows that).
As a mediocre student, you’d have to chose an unpopular field to have a chance at “free” university education (it’s not free, you just get state scholarship which you either have to pay back later or you have to stay and work in Hungary for a certain time depending on the length of your studies).
To get into the “free” programme, you have to reach a certain amount of points with your graduation exams (there are bonus points for certain accomplishments and circumstances too, but the bulk of your points depend on the exam results).
If you get into a paid programme, but you get good grades, you could apply to be state founded. Since those positions are limited, there needs to be a vacancy for you to get accepted.
As an international student, I’m quite certain there is no free option for you.
University is free for any EU citizens, non-EU pay everything between 0-18000€/year depending on the program.
Locals also get student aid from the state (part of rent paid + few hundred for food etc) but foreigners only qualify for it if they work in the country first for couple years or something. We also can take student loans up to a certain amount backed by the state but still arranged with your own bank.
edit: that being said as others already pointed out, it’s in no means easy to get into popular programs, if you want to study business or law in our 3 biggest unis, the acceptance rate is lower than to ivy leagues…
Giving all mediocre kids university education just undermines university education and is bad for the country, the smart kids and the mediocre kid, too.
With that said, atm uni is free regardless of your grades, but getting into the uni with bad grades is not likely, as even the least popular degrees just have a minimum bar set for exam results.
You need high school or “middle school” graduation (Matura), grades don’t matter unless there are more people applied than the number of students a school can accept.
Usually there are too many applicants for humanities and arts, such as law, or psychology. But for STEM, grades usually don’t matter, since there isn’t too much influx. Medicine is an exception, being more popular than physics for example, so it has a grade barrier. Some academies have entry exams tho, like the music academy.
But if you are accepted, everything is free, untill you fail to advance into next year the second time, or if you change uni the second time, or if you are already employed, I think. Then you have to pay, somewhere around 2000-6000eu per year, depending on uni.
You also get state subsidized one meal per day too, that gives you a discount in pretty much all restaurants, except for the very elite or fringe.
Public university is mostly free, you only need to pay a small fee each semester. How good grades you need depends on what you are going to study. It’s possible to apply for exams again if you need to get higher grades or reach the requirments to enter, but this will cost money.
We have Unified State Examinations and each university has a list of exams for each major you have to take. The better the university, the higher you have to score to be admitted. So if you’re a mediocre student, you should pick an unpopular major in a shitty provincial university, but even there the cutoff score might be too high. In this case, you can pay for an education.
Spain: There are fees (relatively low). Postgraduate (MS and above) is not free. In the first case they can be refunded if your family is not wealthy, but you need to keep decent grades.
In both cases there is monetary help if you excel. Personally I have some MS, MPhil, and a postgraduate in the Ivy League, all paid for me, something I would never have as an American of my socioeconomically persuasion.
university in The Netherlands is not free. It costs about 2 000 euros a year. There is something called [“student finance”](https://duo.nl/particulier/student-finance/) which at the moment consists of a loan and a supplementary grant. The supplementary grant depends on your parents’ income. If you do not qualify for the (full) supplementary grant, you can borrow the shortfall as an extra loan, on top of the ‘regular’ loan.
Grades are not taken into account for student finance. And for most studies grades aren’t taken into account for enrollment either.
In the UK it’s complicated, it’s free to Scottish residents in Scotland (dunno about N Ireland). For the rest of us UK citizens we take out ‘loans’ that make it free upfront but they’re not really loans because we don’t pay them back until we earn over a certain threshold, or it is all cancelled when we reach 50. It’s a really weird system and more like a grad tax than a real loan