A Patchwork of Financing Complicates Foreign Study - Blog 5

The article I chose to read about this week discusses some of the issues with financing a foreign education. Many students who choose to study in a foreign country experience difficulties applying for and receiving loans, grants, and scholarships. For example, the article mentions a student from Bulgaria who is trying to study in the United Kingdom at the London School of Economics. Ivailo Vasilev experienced much difficulty getting a student loan from his home country, and his parents were forced to take out a regular loan to finance his education. Most student loans from smaller countries are not applicable for study in a foreign country, so students seeking graduate-level education are struggling to finance their dreams. People are taking notice of this issue – this month, the European Association for International Education “adopted a charter that said: National student loans and grants should always be portable. Students on grants that cover tuition and expenses while studying abroad should be provided with safeguards against arbitrary withdrawal of their funding” (Dzhambazova, 2012). There is a program in the works now for a loan program for European Union students, although it is being met with some criticism. The opposition states that as the costs of living and typical salaries vary greatly throughout the European Union, many students will face difficulties in paying back their loans. 

As a student who recently spent a semester abroad, I can understand a bit of the concern that students have regarding financing an international education. While I had help from outside scholarships, as well as scholarships and grants from UNC-G, it was still very expensive for me to spend a single semester abroad. I cannot imagine the difficulty that students trying to finance a more expensive graduate-level education must experience. It is interesting to me that we talked about class, race and ethnicity recently, as I’m wondering how this plays into the financial difficulties that students in the European Union are facing. Is the issue of education and attainability rooted in perceived racial and ethnic standards and differences? I don’t have the answer to this question, but I think that this is an important issue to watch. I personally agree with the critics of the E.U. loan program in that it will be difficult for students from varying countries and socioeconomic backgrounds to pay off, but I think that it is an interesting idea, and one that could provide many benefits to students seeking foreign education throughout the world.

Dzhambazova, Boryana. "A Patchwork of Financing Complicates Foreign Study - NYTimes.com." The New York Times. N.p., 23 Sept. 2012. Web. 26 Sept. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/24/world/europe/24iht-educlede24.html?ref=internationaleducation&_r=0>.