Masters in Europe? A short hop to academic success

By Helena Pozniak. Studying for a Masters on the Continent costs a fraction of what you'd pay in the UK and will give you a competitive edge.
Standing room only at lectures; red tape; library queues... British postgraduate Katie Ritson acknowledges the downsides – albeit minor ones – of an education on the Continent. "Yes, some lectures were really crowded – sometimes hundreds of us squeezing in," she says. "And the paperwork drove me mad. But the contact time with lecturers was really good. You are much less 'managed', but you don't fall through the net. You get very good feedback." And her Masters in comparative literature at Munich's Ludwig Maximilian University cost nothing – compared with the several thousand pounds she would have paid in the UK.
Continental Europe still offers heavily subsidised higher education. And in some countries, such as Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Austria and much of Germany, it's free. Other popular destinations, such as the Netherlands and France, offer postgraduate qualifications at a fraction of the price now charged in Britain.