Background
How is the situation in Europe today for EU students ?
Today, students living in a member state of the European Union (EU) are able to study in other member states with certain benefits. This may mean that you can pay a cheaper tuition fee or that the education is free. The official statement is that EU students has to have the same conditions in another member country that its inhabitants. One example is that it is free to study in Sweden and that means that other EU students may come to Sweden and study for free. Often when people talk about studying abroad, it is usually about studying at university or college. In the EU, there are some benefits for EU students but it is not the same in all member countries. In some countries education costs a lot of money and in som they are free. This is because the union does not have the power do adress how EU countries should manage their education, that is up to the government in each country. Therefore, the situation is slightly different depending on which country you look at when it comes to overseas studies in the EU countries.
Certain requirements are required of students who choose to study somewhere other than their home country. One of the major requirements is that schools have the right to demand that they should be able to take part of the education in the country's native language to write exams or tests in their language. Students therefore need to have some knowledge of the relevant country's language. Another thing that was mentioned earlier is that the schools are entitled to take in a tuition fee in from students, even if it is free in the students homeland. For EU students choosing to study abroad should know that they have the same rights and obligations as the local students have .
Who is working on this issue today?
The EU works with a free movement for students since the 1980s, when they started to understand the relevance and significance of how important it was for students to be able study abroad at a university. They then started up a project that still runs on by the name Erasmus. Within Erasmus there are a lot of small projects to help students during high school and university levels to get out and meet other young people who study in the EU. The most important and basic message of Erasmus is to help students make contacts with other nationalities and that it will strengthen links between researchers and students and then help them find the workers once the studies are complete. The Commission today is therefore supporting the free movement of students at a higher education level and see positive benefits and effects of foreign studies contribute in the EU.
As each member country is responsible for its own education policies, the minister of education in their respective country is responsible for ensuring that the suggestions the EU set up followed. The EU has no power or authority over the member countries and how they handle their education. They can therefore not require the Member States to not take in tuition fees. They can only come up with suggestions to improve the system and try to propose projects that contribute to better education. An underlying factor why the EU is interested in training at a higher level is that these projects create connections between employers and students that will eventually contribute to a better economy in the EU where customers create connections between different nations. On the EU site europa.eu they write " To the EU's economy to grow , we must have educated citizens so that we can compete in a globalized knowledge economy. " .
Why this is important ?
This question is very important because today's students are tomorrow's workers. We all want to try and create the best environment and the best working community as possible and an easy way to solve this is to ensure that those who need higher education have the opportunity to receive it. If free education was not offered to all potential students, we could in a worse case senario lose a lot of contacts and students of universities and colleges.
Human Rights speaks of the importance for all children to have the right to education on a basic level. We believe that this is not enough. Usually jobs today require a higher education degree. Those who can not afford to study loses the chance to get these jobs they need to support their families. If we consider this a step a bit further, the effects of what too few workers and too few wage takers will do to the economy could make countries bankrupt. When people do not have enough money to spend on getting businesses running, they eventually go under and more people need to be fired. In the worst case this can lead to low low business cycle, which could mean that nations need to take loans they can not repay. Everything is linked and connected to each other. With free movement of students, increases the free movement of labor.
EU takes gains a lot from the students who choose to study abroad. EU creates better communion with the different nations within its borders. Students creating various contacts with each other as companies in member countries later can benefit from and that students get a lot of experience that will help them in their future work.
Problems
What we today see as a problem is that it is not free for EU citizens to study for free in other member states. We believe that all countries should agree to a negotiated condition that offering free tuition at a higher level for all EU citizens should be mandatory. This will improve the contacts between nations, improving economy in the EU and help students to gain experience and contacts for future jobs. We see this as a problem because of the basic facts that if higher education were free it would help a lot of people who struggle with financial problems. They could study and get a better suited job for their abilities and as we are trying to convince through this campaign that EU will gain a lot through believing, supporting and acting on this idea.
Our goal is to :
Anyone who is a citizen of a member state of the European Union should not have to pay any tuition fee when it comes to studying in another member state at a higher education level (university, collage or polytechnic). This rule applies for all state schools in the member countries and regardless of the teaching language.
Solution
Our solution to this problem is that we will suggest that the EU should try to work even harder to ensure that projects within the EU are more complex and that students get better contact. We want to try to convince to all member nations to provide a free education to all EU citizens. We understand that this is a big step and a start is to lower the cost so it becomes more equal with the other nations. This is a starting point but are biggest goal is to introduce a law that says that education should be free at all higher levels in all state schools within all European Union countries.
To make people aware of our project we will contact Jan Björklund, the swedish school minister and try to get his opinion on our ideas and see the vitality of them. We want someone who is highly placed to understand the relevance of our work and our project. We will also be contacting Cecelia Malmström who is the swedish board member in the European Commission. We will also be in contact with an organization called the European Students Union who see themselves as a group that represents all students within the EU. They work together to ensure that the educational, economic and cultural aspects of a student's everyday they meet EU targets. They are trying to create more equality in education. That all students have the same rights regardless of gender, ethnicity or religion. We would like to contact them because they have a similar goal to ours. They want to strengthen higher education and make the unionen more aware of its importance.
Project
In order to make this campaign as real as possible and trying to reach out to as much people as possible we have made a campaign film that simply explains why it is important to try to change the training to become free. We have also launched this page, to get our message out to the people and to ensure that as many people can take part in the campaign as possible. We also have a facebook page that people all over Europe who are affected by this issue can support our campaign and receive news and events concerning our topic. We understand that it is hard to come up with this kind of idea and go directly to the EU Commission, therefore, we will also start a petition to show how many there are who support us and feel that this is an important issue that needs to be addressed.
How is the situation in Europe today for EU students ?
Today, students living in a member state of the European Union (EU) are able to study in other member states with certain benefits. This may mean that you can pay a cheaper tuition fee or that the education is free. The official statement is that EU students has to have the same conditions in another member country that its inhabitants. One example is that it is free to study in Sweden and that means that other EU students may come to Sweden and study for free. Often when people talk about studying abroad, it is usually about studying at university or college. In the EU, there are some benefits for EU students but it is not the same in all member countries. In some countries education costs a lot of money and in som they are free. This is because the union does not have the power do adress how EU countries should manage their education, that is up to the government in each country. Therefore, the situation is slightly different depending on which country you look at when it comes to overseas studies in the EU countries.
Certain requirements are required of students who choose to study somewhere other than their home country. One of the major requirements is that schools have the right to demand that they should be able to take part of the education in the country's native language to write exams or tests in their language. Students therefore need to have some knowledge of the relevant country's language. Another thing that was mentioned earlier is that the schools are entitled to take in a tuition fee in from students, even if it is free in the students homeland. For EU students choosing to study abroad should know that they have the same rights and obligations as the local students have .
Who is working on this issue today?
The EU works with a free movement for students since the 1980s, when they started to understand the relevance and significance of how important it was for students to be able study abroad at a university. They then started up a project that still runs on by the name Erasmus. Within Erasmus there are a lot of small projects to help students during high school and university levels to get out and meet other young people who study in the EU. The most important and basic message of Erasmus is to help students make contacts with other nationalities and that it will strengthen links between researchers and students and then help them find the workers once the studies are complete. The Commission today is therefore supporting the free movement of students at a higher education level and see positive benefits and effects of foreign studies contribute in the EU.
As each member country is responsible for its own education policies, the minister of education in their respective country is responsible for ensuring that the suggestions the EU set up followed. The EU has no power or authority over the member countries and how they handle their education. They can therefore not require the Member States to not take in tuition fees. They can only come up with suggestions to improve the system and try to propose projects that contribute to better education. An underlying factor why the EU is interested in training at a higher level is that these projects create connections between employers and students that will eventually contribute to a better economy in the EU where customers create connections between different nations. On the EU site europa.eu they write " To the EU's economy to grow , we must have educated citizens so that we can compete in a globalized knowledge economy. " .
Why this is important ?
This question is very important because today's students are tomorrow's workers. We all want to try and create the best environment and the best working community as possible and an easy way to solve this is to ensure that those who need higher education have the opportunity to receive it. If free education was not offered to all potential students, we could in a worse case senario lose a lot of contacts and students of universities and colleges.
Human Rights speaks of the importance for all children to have the right to education on a basic level. We believe that this is not enough. Usually jobs today require a higher education degree. Those who can not afford to study loses the chance to get these jobs they need to support their families. If we consider this a step a bit further, the effects of what too few workers and too few wage takers will do to the economy could make countries bankrupt. When people do not have enough money to spend on getting businesses running, they eventually go under and more people need to be fired. In the worst case this can lead to low low business cycle, which could mean that nations need to take loans they can not repay. Everything is linked and connected to each other. With free movement of students, increases the free movement of labor.
EU takes gains a lot from the students who choose to study abroad. EU creates better communion with the different nations within its borders. Students creating various contacts with each other as companies in member countries later can benefit from and that students get a lot of experience that will help them in their future work.
Problems
What we today see as a problem is that it is not free for EU citizens to study for free in other member states. We believe that all countries should agree to a negotiated condition that offering free tuition at a higher level for all EU citizens should be mandatory. This will improve the contacts between nations, improving economy in the EU and help students to gain experience and contacts for future jobs. We see this as a problem because of the basic facts that if higher education were free it would help a lot of people who struggle with financial problems. They could study and get a better suited job for their abilities and as we are trying to convince through this campaign that EU will gain a lot through believing, supporting and acting on this idea.
Our goal is to :
Anyone who is a citizen of a member state of the European Union should not have to pay any tuition fee when it comes to studying in another member state at a higher education level (university, collage or polytechnic). This rule applies for all state schools in the member countries and regardless of the teaching language.
Solution
Our solution to this problem is that we will suggest that the EU should try to work even harder to ensure that projects within the EU are more complex and that students get better contact. We want to try to convince to all member nations to provide a free education to all EU citizens. We understand that this is a big step and a start is to lower the cost so it becomes more equal with the other nations. This is a starting point but are biggest goal is to introduce a law that says that education should be free at all higher levels in all state schools within all European Union countries.
To make people aware of our project we will contact Jan Björklund, the swedish school minister and try to get his opinion on our ideas and see the vitality of them. We want someone who is highly placed to understand the relevance of our work and our project. We will also be contacting Cecelia Malmström who is the swedish board member in the European Commission. We will also be in contact with an organization called the European Students Union who see themselves as a group that represents all students within the EU. They work together to ensure that the educational, economic and cultural aspects of a student's everyday they meet EU targets. They are trying to create more equality in education. That all students have the same rights regardless of gender, ethnicity or religion. We would like to contact them because they have a similar goal to ours. They want to strengthen higher education and make the unionen more aware of its importance.
Project
In order to make this campaign as real as possible and trying to reach out to as much people as possible we have made a campaign film that simply explains why it is important to try to change the training to become free. We have also launched this page, to get our message out to the people and to ensure that as many people can take part in the campaign as possible. We also have a facebook page that people all over Europe who are affected by this issue can support our campaign and receive news and events concerning our topic. We understand that it is hard to come up with this kind of idea and go directly to the EU Commission, therefore, we will also start a petition to show how many there are who support us and feel that this is an important issue that needs to be addressed.