The (many) realities behind free tuition higher education: a global perspective

In the past couple of years, many countries around the world have seen debates about the financing of higher education, and ever more often claims emerge that higher education should be free.

In this seminar, Dr Ariane de Gayardon will analyse the rationales behind the establishment and sustaining of free tuition higher education systems to understand the current hype.

She will then create an outline of the global contemporary landscape of free higher education, by taking a close look at those countries that currently have free higher education and what is meant by ‘free’ in different contexts.

The many realities hidden behind the term ‘free higher education’ show that it is a policy that is hard to sustain and hides many different scenarios, notably in terms of access and success in higher education.

A paper on this research will be available soon. In the meantime, please contact Ariane (a.gayardon@ucl.ac.uk) if you’d like more information.