Proposed changes to tuition-fee regimes in Finland and Sweden could see both nations compete more aggressively in the lucrative market for international students. Currently, students from outside the European Union are not charged to attend universities in either country, where they make up only a small proportion of their student bodies. But Finland and Sweden have tabled plans to introduce tuition fees for all overseas students, a move that could create the conditions for an explosion in their numbers from 2010.Both countries are keen to explore what they see as a growing market, with their sights set on attracting students from Russia and Asia in particular. There are resources in the international student market that we are missing out on. If (we) could gain access to these funds, opportunities for strengthening our competitiveness would increase, says Lars Leijonborg, Swedens minister for higher education and research. Leijonborg believes that charging fees will also raise the status of Scandinavian universities among wealthier foreign students, who sometimes assume that if education is free, it is of inferior standard.
While the US, the UK and Australia have established themselves as the biggest players in the overseas market, partly because their courses are taught in English, other countries universities are offering programmes in English too. Finland and Sweden want to get in on the act.
Last year, Helsinki University offered 19 international programmes, with plans to increase them to 30 by the end of the year. Rebekka Niskanen, enrolments director at Helsinki University, says its aim is for international students to make up 5 percent of undergraduate and 15 percent of postgraduate numbers. And Finnish reforms to facilitate internationalisation, due to become law in August, will grant universities independent legal status to allow them greater operational flexibility, including charging fees for non-EU students and recruiting academics from overseas.
But concerns have been raised in a number of online discussion forums for international students that fees may push them towards native English-speaking countries, where graduate employment prospects are better. At the moment, getting skilled work in Finland or Sweden is extremely difficult for candidates who do not speak the local languages.
Some university marketing departments in the Nordic countries have also questioned the wisdom of trying to compete with the formidable advantages of prestigious Anglo-Saxon institutions. In this light, Finlands strength in IT, biotechnology and natural sciences could see its universities adopt a faculty-led marketing approach.
Finnish and Swedish universities are also looking to the UK to help form their strategies. They have been encouraged by the fact that post-1992 universities have successfully attracted overseas students, despite lacking the international reputation of their more-established rivals.
But a big concern is that international students from less wealthy nations will in effect be barred from Finnish and Swedish institutions by the introduction of fees. At present, those from developing nations make up one fifth of the international students at Helsinki.
In Finland, fees of between Euro 3,500 (Rs. 2.31 lakh) and Euro 12,500 (Rs.8.25 lakh) have been proposed for international Masters programmes, and in Sweden, a figure of about Euro 8,000 (Rs.5 lakh) has been suggested.
If this becomes reality, postgraduate fees in the Nordic countries would be significantly lower than those charged in the UK, offering an advantage in an increasingly competitive market.

(Excerpted and adapted from Times Higher Education)