Tuition payments

Let's agree that for years private education was demonized and that vested interests held public education hostage to the fixations of unions and civil servants. The decades that passed consolidated a specific reality in primary and high schools.

The development of private education further intensifies the need to upgrade free education.

The total annual cost of tuition and fees at four-year American colleges and universities has more than tripled over the past 60 years, from an average of $5,369 annually in 1963 to $17,709 in 2023, according to the U.S. National Center for Education Statistics.

Turkish students are redefining their educational horizons when it comes to education, with a growing inclination toward affordable Germany over the once-dominant preference of the United States.

Bulgarian students seeking to pursue higher education abroad continue to favor European countries, with Ireland maintaining its position as the top destination, according to data from educational consultant "Integral".

The government has decided to eliminate fees for students and doctoral students in public higher education institutions this year.

Since I work at a private, not-for-profit university in the USA, one would expect me to be in favor of such institutions for Greece. While I do believe that not-for-profit private higher education is indeed fine, I am not sure if this model will work in Greece.

Dimitris Koutsoumbas, the general secretary of Greece's Communist Party (KKE), has stood by his remarks suggesting that the imposition of university tuition fees in Scandinavian universities has led young female students there to date older men for money in order to cover their educational expenses.

In a move to retain local talent and foster equal access to higher education, the Bulgarian government has proposed the abolition of tuition fees for students and doctoral candidates in public higher education institutions.

The debate between private schools and parents about increasing fees has reignited with the start of the new year.

According to the criteria that "No increase may exceed the figure obtained by dividing the sum of the previous year's PPI and CPI by two and adding five points," there will be an increase of approximately 60 percent in private school fees in the 2024-2025 academic year.