Danish students hold the Scandinavian record in financial hardship among students, the Danish Student Council says in a press release, with reference to the Eurostudent survey, a comparison of student social and economic conditions. This is surprising, considering that Danish students are generally perceived to be pampered with large student grants.
However, only 44 per cent of Danish students find their funding to be sufficient to cover their expenses. In contrast, half of students from Norway, Finland and Sweden reckon they have sufficient funds.
Students are poor
»It is absurd that less than half of the students have sufficient funds to cover their costs. For many young people, tight finances are still a barrier to take an education. And it will only worsen if the period of state support of education is reduced with a year or if you cut the student grants in other ways,« argues the president of The Danish Student Council, Torben Holm.
»It is time to break down the myth of Danish students living in a whirl of pleasures. Our studies show that students in Denmark have an income that does not cover our monthly expenses. Our grant is not about living in luxury. It is about living at all,« Torben Holm claims.
The reason why many Danish students find their budget so tight in spite of the Danish system of state support for education is in the high cost of living in Denmark. »It’s really expensive to live as a student in Denmark. It is almost impossible to get an affordable student accommodation. Most of us live in the really expensive private housing market,« he says.
Students are too complacent
To many politicians and industrialists, such talk is pure nonsense. It just indicates that young people are all too complacent, the Danish Chamber of Commerce claims. Between 70 and 80 per cent of young Danes between the ages of 15 and 30 mistakenly believe that they spend either the same or more time on education and work than their European peers. This is according to a study by the bureau International Research conducted for the Danish Chamber of Commerce.
The truth is that Danes, in the most recent statistics for 22 European countries, are among those who spend the least time on studying and working in student jobs.
It makes The Danish Chamber of Commerce call for more humility - and a self-image in accordance with reality:
»Unfortunately, it seems that students are immersed in a leisurely culture that has devalued the value of hard work. Young people themselves must demand more and better education, because otherwise we risk being overtaken by other countries,« says Emilie Wedell-Wedellsborg, a political consultant at the Danish Chamber of Commerce.
A generous benefit system
In her opinion Denmark has one of the most generous benefit systems, and cites the fact that each and every year the government spends the staggering sum of almost DKK 17 billion on state support for education. Such money would be better spent on education by boosting quality rather than paying the students a ‘salary’,« says Emilie Wedell-Wedellsborg.
Almost 30 per cent of the cost of education in Denmark is spent on student living costs (primarily state support of education), and thus only 70 per cent is spent directly on educational institutions. And this is the cause of concern in the Danish Chamber of Commerce.
»At a time when finances are scarce and you have to invest in future growth, it is no good having a high standard of living for students, but a mediocre education,« says Emilie Wedell-Wedellsborg.
Proposals for cutbacks
Along with many economists and centre-to-right politicians she argues that only Bachelor students should be granted state support for education whereas Master’s degree students should be satisfied with repayable loans.
At the same time the Danish Chamber of Commerce calls on politicians to abolish the typically Danish, so-called, ‘messing about-year’ (fjumreår).
»We do not believe that it is reasonable that students can get six years ‘pay’ for five years of work,« explains Emilie Wedell-Wedellsborg. Calculations from the Danish Chamber of Commerce show that the introduction of repayable grants to candidates and the elimination of the messing about-year will save DKK 2.7 billion. Money that could be spent on improving the quality of education.
»It will benefit both young people and business if we begin to prioritize quality education rather than wages. This means that we move the SU-grant billions into more lessons and better educational and career guidance, as well as more flexibility in education and more study places,« explains Emilie Wedell-Wedellsborg.
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Comments
Having earned two degrees in
Having earned two degrees in two very different fields - architecture and computer science - in the US, I have to be envious of the higher education system of Denmark.
With a level of support for Danish students that simply does not exist for Americans in college, it tends to be a daunting process to earn even one degree because of the expense.
Different Standards
I think Dane youth can be very spoiled, but it alls goes in the way the society has grow and the kind of advantages they have.
I come from a non EU country, and it has been hard for my parents to give me an education, because they had to pay even for the public education.
I am here because Danish government grant me a scholarship that covers my tuition fee and gave me "some" money to survive each month, which is a thousand DKK more than SU. And I got super surprised because that's more than a full time job professional earns in my country (even with the Danish taxes).
It is difficult for me to to get a second Job, and I have been trying for the last months to get one. With the amount of money I got from the scholarship I have enough to pay the rent, food, laundry and cellphone bill, buy academic books and from time to time to go party with friends, or travel to see Denmark or Europe.
I really get surprised when people say they don't have enough money with the SU.
I talked with some Danes when I recently arrive the country and they say, for instance, that their education is free or paid by the SU, some of them even have told me they have the SU as an economical resource "If I see myself in economical problems I can always apply for the SU, study six months or one year or quit when I get a better Job". The point here is that, maybe, when you have to fight for what you want, you value and appreciate that more than when it is just given to you. I studied very hard, because I knew the situation in my country is hard, and my parents made big efforts to give me an education, I also used to work up to 15 hours a week when studying 35 hours a week, just to help my parents to pay my Uni. I tried to do my best and then I applied for a Scholarship in Denmark and I value and feel grateful for every øre they gave me, because they trust in my and my capacities and without Danish trust I will be in student loans to get superior studies.
I think the problem is not the SU, but the way students see the SU. They have it so easy that they don't appreciate it, and, as with my scholarship, they should be tested from time to time to see if they deserve to have it or if they are in the education system just to have fun and go party with the classmates.
What the SU means to me personally
Thanks to the SU, I'm studying - at least part time - at KU. I'm 27 years old, married to a non-European Union-citizen and fighting with depression and general anxiety (I've just "celebrated" my 10th anniversary suffering from these). Neither of my parents have more money than just to survive/live themselves and my husband being from a 3rd world country, his only surviving parent is only eating and taking her medicine thanks to the economical support from her children.
After graduating from high school at 18 and until my husband and I could apply for and get permission to stay together here in Denmark when I was 24 (we met when I went abroad after high school to learn a foreign language and do some voluntary work) I have been working hard when not going abroad to spend some months with my husband and, none the less, when I could find a job - mostly in nurseries, kindergartens and schools. Unfortunately I got seriously ill (a break down) from my last job, so I know studying and with time finding a quite different kind of job is my only possibility.
Because of my situation I'm not able to study full-time and in no way able to work while studying. My husband having a minimum wage job is as far as we can hope for the moment (the financial crisis and him still learning Danish). If I were not to receive SU one of the following would happen:
1: I would have to take study loans for the rest of my studies and here we could easily be talking about at least 6 or 7 six years more (I'm theoretically in my 2nd year but 5 exams behind the normal schedule - that is IF I pass the two exams I'm taking this summer). At top of our loan in the bank (to get permission most people have to buy an apartment) we would then have hundreds of thousands more to pay off with only me working as my husband also needs/wants to study.
2: I would have to stop studying without being able to actually work more than maybe 5 days a month and without being able to receive another kind of economical support because of my age and because I don't want to lose my husband's permission to be with me in Denmark. (For those wondering: I tried living with my husband in his country for a year but it was too difficult for me, partly because of the depression and anxiety. Anyway I would also have to work there so it wouldn't really change anything).
So receiving SU while studying means so much to me - it gives me the possibility to maybe find something that I can do (without getting ill!) later in life and gives me some extra time to sort things out in my on-going struggle to get well. And all that while being able to be with the man I love.
Without it I would only get worse all the time because of increasing economical problems, and/or not being able to study what I like and not being able to be with my husband
This is of course my personal history/situation but I know that thousands of other students have similar or different problems/circumstances in their lives that makes the SU essential for their present and future lives.
And do you really think it is fair that people like me - for fighting diseases and difficulties, for falling in love with someone the politicians don't like because of prejudices and maybe racism, for not having rich parents etcetera - should not be able to study?
I, at least, do not think that.
So please remember students like me when you talk and write about spoiled and lazy students and cutting the SU. If you're a student yourself and don't know of any problems whatsoever that aren't manageable, rejoice in your good fortune! But please don't judge those of us who for some or other reason don't have lives that easy.
Finally, the fact that many Danish students aren't getting paid a salary beside their SU doesn't mean that they're just happily drinking coffee/beer and watching tv/browsing the internet when not studying. As I remember at least around 40-50 % of students in Denmark have a voluntary job beside their studies which brings the students experience and meaning, and bring help to those who otherwise wouldn't receive any. This is a central part of the Danish civil society. When the Danish Chamber of Commerce talks about students wasting money and time, have they thought about the value of that voluntary work? I guess not, because it is so much easier just to talk about the spoiled and lazy youth ("Everything was so much better in my days!" etcetera etcetera).
SU
Danish students are not 'spoiled rotten' but perhaps are a quite a bit luckier in comparison to univeristy students in most other countries. I myself obtained my position in life by: 1) hard work and 2) state support for my university education in the form of educational grants + loans. If a Danish student's parents are wealthy and can afford it, why should they not financially support their children in their university educations (e.g. housing costs)? The government should fund (grants and/or loans) students who come from lower income families (like mine). In my opinion, this is a more fair distribution of the taxpayer's money for educating university students.
Lucky Danish
I am shocked that danish students think they do not get enough.
I studied for 1 year in Cph, and I agree life cost is expensive. But I did the rest of my education in Paris, where life is as much expensive as it is in DK.
In France we got no grant, the only thing that the government pay is half price on the metro, and 1/3 of your rent. Further more, if you want a great school you have to go private university or engineering schools that cost around 3K to 15K€/year.
So you have 2 solutions:
1) your parents pay
2)you take a loan
3) you work as hell on student jobs (just to know in good schools we work from 8am to 6pm, so you still have time during the night for your job+ readings + homework + thesis/projects xx )
I do believe that the danish system is great, but please, do not complain about your situation :)
spoiled or priviledged?
I do not believe that we are spoiled because we recieve a monthly student grant, I believe that we are priviledged. The grant is a part of our extensive wellfare system, ensuring equal possibilities for all classes to recieve a university degree. I believe that there are great differences in how much value one gets from the grant, as a consequence of differentiated living-costs between danish cities. I also believe that some students have less actual in-class teatching than others, without having to spend more time on self-study and thus having more leisure time than others. I think that means there is a lack of equality between students, but do not for one second think that there are not students that struggle to make ends meet. And what is this about getting paid a student grant for your in-between studies? You have to be enrolled as a student to recieve the grant. Usually the sabatical year is taken after highschool and spend on working and saving money for travelling and generally gaining maturity and direction in life. I support the welfare system that generations have fought to make a reality, and I do not understand people who want to abandon this instead of strengthening it. I always think these must be people who could have gained their position in life without the welfare systems (judgemental, perhabs). And what is wrong with a bit of idealism these days?
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