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Sep 27, 2012 -- 9:26AM, isaic16 wrote:

@Yxoque: How exactly does the education system work there?  I'm curious how they avoid waste caused by the 'eternal students' or similar.  Are there minimum grade limits, or term limits on how long you can stay in school?  I'm genuinely curious because it just seems infeasible from a monetary and logistical standpoint.

Everything up to higher education has maximums for their costs (so there's a cap on how expensive it can be for the parents). 

I don't know the exact numbers, but it's something like €50 (probably even less) for ages 2.5 to 5 and €100 for 6 to 11. There's no cap for 12 to 18, but there's talk of doing one. Everything not payed for by the parents is provided by the government or the schools. (This includes pensils and stuff.)

Parents can also ask the government for a scholarship, but I don't know the exact numbers of those (even though they paid for a big part of my education).

For higher education (university and college) students can apply for a scholarship as well if their parents lack the means of paying for their education. If you quality for a scholarship you also get a reduced entry fee (€80 instead of €550). 

The amount you get depends on multiple factors, like the number of courses you passed the previous year (there's a complicated point system for this: you start out with 300 or so, and each course has points associated with it; you lose the points for failing and when you run out you stop getting scholarships) and your parents income. 

The first amount you get goes from €2000 to €3000, depending on different factors (you get more when you go live in a student chamber), which for me has always been enough (until I went to a student chamber). 

This might seem like a low amount (the numbers I've seen for US education boggled my mind), but learning institutions get government funding anyway.

This is roughly how it works in Belgium, I think.

Sep 27, 2012 -- 12:21PM, Barinellos wrote:

Sep 27, 2012 -- 1:34AM, Terti wrote:

What kind of site, Barinellos? It sounds really interesting, if you're actually allowed to talk about it :$

Not sure how much I could say without giving it away.

Really? I mean, I have no idea how knowing whether it's for a construction site, or a camping site, or anything of the likes is going to give it away. Unless it's for a space airfield or area 51 or something :$


ED: to add to Yxo, here's the situation in the Netherlands. Dutch Universities have yearly fees in the range of 1800 euro's currently, raising by approx 50 each year. The actual costs are something like 10K, but the government coughs up the rest if you're from the EU and under thirty. Students also get a small grant every month, which can range from 90 to 500 euro's depending on whether you live at home/alone and the income of your parents (I get 255, which is normal). This lasts for the duration of your study or for the nominal years for a BA+MA (4 years, 5 for certain studies and RMA trajectories), whichever comes first. If you manage to graduate within ten years, it becomes a gift. Otherwise you'll have to pay it back. Students also get free public transport access for either the week or the weekend, whichever you want.

steveargyle.deviantart.com/art/Bloodfray...
So, steve posted this...
yeah... just... just yeah.

It's so interesting to see what happens in Belgium, where my family are from. Makes me wish they stayed there. In the UK I had to pay completely for my masters, despite being in the top 10% grades wise for everything else, which is why I saved for two years and then took two years to do a one year course, because I had to work to fund. Whilst I have many friends from my first degree who are finishing phds or have high paying jobs, despite receiving lower grades than me throughout the whole of their education, because they could pay to do volunteer internships for a year or more or pay for their education. There was no way I could live in London without earning a wage, so I missed out/took longer. How can this be right?

Anyway, I finished my masters today, so it all worked out in the end. 

So, just to let you guys know, I'm going to be in Atlanta for the next three days. Be back sometime sunday night.