Fees for free? The many guises of higher education tuition fees in Europe

When a country’s tuition fee system does not cover administrative charges, who picks up the bill?
Comparing tuition fees - the fee charged to higher education students for educational instruction - seems straightforward.  It should be as simple as crunching a few numbers or better yet, locating dots on a chart. Every year, country comparable data on tuition fees are issued by international information providers. The chart below, based on Eurydice’s National Student Fee and Support Systems and the OECD’s 2013 ‘Education at a Glance’, for example clearly shows that England charges more tuition fees than Japan. It seems straightforward.  But is it? Short answer: not really. Read more...