By Marielk. HSBC, an international banking organisation has examined study costs in 13 countries in terms of tuition and overall living costs to determine the most expensive countries to study in. Their results indicate that Australia is with a relatively clear margin the most expensive country to study in – topping the list for both highest tuition fees as well as highest living costs. Australia is followed by US and UK in the list of most expensive countries, but the costs for studying in UK are over 20% lower than in Australia – from over 38,5 thousand dollars down to just over 30 thousand annually. More...

By Cathy Davidson. To say that American universities are too expensive is like saying cars are too expensive. What do we mean by such a statement?  Are we talking about the cost of a Lamborghini Veneno (at 3.5M, one of the world's  most expensive cars) or a Hyundai Atos (at $9000, one of the least expensive)?  For the captain of industry, the sultan, or the magnate, there might not be enough luxury features on the Lamborghini.  For the person barely hanging on to that minimum wage job with no benefits, paying $9000 for an Atos to get across town to work at Walmart every day may be hopelessly out of reach.
So is the Hyundai too expensive?  Is the Lamborghini too cheap?
That is the kind of question we need to be asking of U.S. higher education, an ad hoc system that varies tremendously by state and by kind.  Unlike many countries, we do not have a publiic, national university system. The range of tuition costs (elite private university? public community college? for-profit institution? online provider?) is as diverse as the students being served. More...

Blog Educpros de Pierre Dubois. Tout roule entre les organisations étudiantes (UNEF et FAGE) et Geneviève Fioraso : elles semblent en effet s’être concertées pour publier simultanément un communiqué sur le coût de la rentrée. L’adage Bis repetita placent devrait être remplacé par son contraire : Bis repetita non placent.
19 août 2013, communiqué de l’UNEF. Enquête coût de la vie étudiante : +1,6% pour l’année 2013-2014. « Pour la neuvième année consécutive, l’UNEF publie son enquête sur le coût d’une année d’étude dans l’enseignement supérieur. Cette année, le coût de la vie étudiante augmente de 1,6% (soit 1,5 fois l’inflation) portant le prix total d’une année d’étude à une somme comprise entre 10 500 et 15 500 euros. Les principales augmentations: les charges locatives et les frais obligatoires ».
19 août 2013, communiqué de la FAGE. Rentrée étudiante : toujours plus chère. Indicateur calculé pour la 11ème fois par la FAGE. « La rentrée 2013 s’annonce être une nouvelle fois un moment douloureux pour les étudiants. Le mois de septembre sera de nouveau synonyme de sacrifices et de difficultés financières pour les étudiants mais aussi pour leurs familles. La rentrée 2013 coûtera en moyenne 2481,73 € à ces derniers, soit une augmentation de 2 % par rapport à 2012″.
19 août 2013, communiqué de Geneviève Fioraso. Agir pour limiter le coût de la rentrée étudiante. Suite...

By David Schick and Mary Beth Marklein. College students heading to campus this fall will probably pay more for new textbooks, but recent studies suggest that the era of costly course materials could be coming to an end.
College students and some of their professors are pushing back against ever-escalating textbook prices that have jumped 82% in the past decade. Growing numbers of faculty are publishing or adopting free or lower-cost course materials online.
Students also are getting savvier: 34% this spring reported downloading course content from an unauthorized website, up from 20% in 2010, says a survey released last month by the Book Industry Study Group, a trade association whose members include publishers, retailers, librarians, and other professionals engaged in print and electronic media. Also, 31% said they photocopied or scanned chapters from other students' books, up from 21% in 2010. The study (from spring 2013) is based on ongoing surveys involving about 6,000 book buyers a month. More...

Les conditions de vie jouent un rôle déterminant dans la réussite des étudiants. Dès septembre 2013, sera mise en place la première étape d’une réforme historique des bourses sur critères sociaux. Cette réforme, qui se traduit par une dotation budgétaire supplémentaire de près de 120 millions d’euros, sera prolongée et amplifiée à la rentrée universitaire 2014.
Les conditions de vie jouent un rôle déterminant dans la réussite des étudiants. En cette veille de rentrée universitaire, Geneviève Fioraso, ministre de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche, précise que, si les étudiants sont, comme l’ensemble des Français, attentifs à leur pouvoir d’achat, "tout est mis en oeuvre pour limiter le coût de la rentrée étudiante, pour tous les étudiants et notamment pour les étudiants les plus modestes."
La ministre de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche confirme l’attachement du Gouvernement au modèle français d’un enseignement supérieur accessible à tous, avec des droits peu élevés n’évoluant pas plus vite que l’inflation (L’inflation est estimée à + 0,8 % pour l’année 2013 par l’INSEE). A la rentrée 2013, les droits de scolarité s’établissent ainsi à 183 euros en Licence (+ 2 euros), à 254 euros en Master (+ 4 euros) et à 388 euros pour le Doctorat (+ 8 euros). Suite...

More and more international students are coming to Canada because our post-secondary tuition is less expensive than in other top education markets around the world, new research has found.
In 2013, a record 100,000 international students came to Canada, an increase of 60% since 2004, according to an HSBC Bank Canada report.
With average annual fees of US$18,474, Canada is cheaper than the U.K. ($19,291), the United Arab Emirates ($21,371), the U.S. ($25,226), and the most expensive, Australia ($25,375). More...

By Emily K. Coleman. Taylor Berge didn’t walk into college planning to graduate early. But going through her four-year plan with her guidance counselor, the Johnsburg High School grad realized it was a possibility.
“I looked at it as I can spread everything out and take four years of school and pay for all of that and have a short-term summer job, which barely gets you everything, or I can cram it all into one and I’ll have the loans, but once I get my actual job, it will be a lot easier to pay it off quicker,” Berge said. “I just prioritized that way instead.”
While the decision means the 21-year-old is missing out on what would have been her senior year – she plans on visiting her friends often – it also means she can start graduate school at Elmhurst College a year sooner to get her master’s degree in psychology. More...

By Jack Grove. More divorced mothers are seeking legal advice about whether ex-husbands can extend support payments for children at university, a law firm has said. Pannone, a family law firm with offices in London and Manchester, said its staff had seen a surge in enquiries about maintenance payments to help support children in higher education since tuition fees rose to £9,000 last year. 
Many women did not realise that they could apply for maintenance beyond the end of a child’s secondary education, said Pannone associate Naomi Rainey. More...