MovieChat Forums > Where to Invade Next (2016) Discussion > Free University....

Free University....

posted 8 years ago by jdnamando
7 replies | jump to latest

So I'm from Ireland and we most definitely don't have free University/College Education....most universities charge 5-6000 euro a year for courses. PLC (similar to community college in the US) still costs up to a few hundred a year. You do get government grants of course but most definitely not enough to cover fees and living expenses and most these grants are based on distance from the college and personal circumstance.
We do have free education for children unless it's a private school but schools want money for everything...uniforms with the school crest on it (costs 100's of euro at a time and usually need a new one very year), there's also books to be bought and fees for admin for the school. So education most definitely isn't free here in Ireland. Trust me. I've worked full time for 10 years because I can't afford to go back to work.

[–] jdnamando 8 years ago

*back to college!!

[–] mgsgamer2009 8 years ago

I feel like I remember him saying free or almost free. 6000 euro a year is basically free compared to 40,000 USD a year.

[–] jdnamando 8 years ago

I can understand if he said free or almost free but it actually came up on the list onscreen for countries with Free Education. Like other than that, pretty amazing documentary but Irish people are struggling to afford education esp around the Dublin area as accommodation costs are so high. I've been working full time since I left school over a decade ago and still can't afford to go to university.

[–] mgsgamer2009 8 years ago

There are no free universities in the country at all? I was thinking there may have been some and many of the others were tuition based.

That or maybe northern Ireland has free university and his research team made a mistake thinking it was one country.

[–] holtor 8 years ago

I always wondered about this. You could simply study abroad and move to any of the European countries which have almost no tuition fees and an excellent level of university education (Germany or France, for ex.) for a few years. So why don't you do that? I did a part of my studies abroad, not to save money, but to see other countries. I just do not get why people in Ireland and the UK pay those absurd fees. I suspect that one of the main reasons is the abysmal level of foreign language teaching in Ireland/UK. Maybe most people there are simply too afraid of having to talk in a different language. That would be a case of poverty by stupidity then.

[–] 8 years ago

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[–] TheCineSinge 8 years ago

I don't know the entire situation in Ireland but I was curious why Scotland didn't appear on the list.

Was the list restricted to those countries which provide free education for incoming foreign students as well as nationals? If so, I understand Scotland's exclusion: university is free for Scottish residents and I believe for those in the EU but not elsewhere.
No, this doesn't cover living costs etc but I was going on the assumption that Moore was only talking tuition fees.

Anyhow, if the above "restriction" wasn't a consideration should not Scotland have been on the list? Basically, its free for those who live there and some amount of foreign students (unlike the US).