No student fees!

The last week we have witnessed students’ uprising in London where thousands of students have been marching in the streets in protest against higher university fees. Some weeks ago, the same situation took place in Dublin, Ireland, where the Executive Committee of the Student Parliament took part in a crowd consisting of over 30 000 other students protesting against increasing fees.

The Student Parliament at the University of Oslo is crystal clear on the matter of student fees. Higher education should be free of charge, as a right for all people. Free higher education is a great resource for a modern society as it helps to even out social divides.

According to a recent survey, an overwhelming majority of students in Norway agree on this issue. We do not want student fees.

The debate as to whether international students should be paying fees for higher education in Norway started again when the political party KrF recently decided to include this in their alternative federal budget. We also find it very regrettable that approximately at the same time, the University of Oslo seems to be starting to speculate in whether to introduce student acceptance fees for the international students as an answer to the introduction of fees for international students in Sweden.

We find both of these to be frightening developments within the sector of higher education. We have seen that the introduction of general student fees in other countries have started by introducing fees in this way. This is a way of undermining the principle of higher education and it is a way of increasing social differences, and it most certainly will affect the international students that want to study in Norway with few means negatively. For us, the vital thing is to ensure that students are accepted to universities based on their competence, not on the size of their wallets.

It’s time to start marching in protest in Norway as well.