oh dear!

Compared to Europe they are, but compared to the elite universities of the USA, they're potentially very cheap. (I say "potentially", because what you pay in the USA depends a lot on what kind of concession or scholarship you can get.)

morayloon

Not all British universities are expensive to attend. Whereas it would cost you up to £9000 a year to attend an English University, Scottish ones have no tuition fees and that extends to citizens of EU countries (except those from the rest of the UK)

Linschoten

Oh, these lovable Scots! No doubt said with such relish.

Corto Maltese

I can tell you that the education system in Norway sucks.

Finland is considerd the best in the world...So i would say Finland

Nikator

University education in the UK isn't expensive in "real" terms as you're allowed to pay for the fees and living costs with a government loan and sometimes grant (depending on income) and you then pay it back based on your income, so while not cheap at face value, for the student it's probably as cost-effective as European education (who don't have fees as it's collected as straight taxation elsewhere).

The UK undoubtedly has the best university and private education (called public just to add to the confusion) in Europe, in regards to education available to everyone it's too variable to say, but I doubt we're near the top.

Nikator

Does anyone know why it is that in international rankings the USA and UK utterly dominate university education? Obviously the huge amount of funding in the US may have something to do with this, but is there a historic reason for it, as the UK has nothing like that sort of money.

AlpinLuke

Italian educational system is unbeatable:

students study rarely,
examinations are rarely serious,
with the right "friendships" a student can find a job in the public administration
... and that student, once in office, will earn more than a UK student who has broken his head on the books for many years !


A part humor, I tend to agree that the best educational system is the British one, the German one is quite good, but it misses the "picks" [it's a high mean level, anyway].

Spartacuss

English students are restricted to the University of Culloden.

Tercio

Lol, I remember when I studied Italian my teacher made out how little we studied in Australia, but that everyone in italy studies super hard and all the children are politically active. My ass, assuming it's similar to that of spain here, than it's fairly poor education.