Brexit will not affect EU student fees in the UK

Brexit will not affect EU student fees in the UK
The British government has pledged to fund EU nationals on the same basis as domestic students until at least the beginning of the 2020-21 academic year, whatever happens with Brexit.

There were fears among young Europeans that if the UK left the EU without a deal, they would be in the same situation as non-EU students from countries such as China, India and America. This could mean they would pay enormous fees of up to £20,000 per year.

The decision means they will still be able to apply for the standard tuition fees of £9,250 a year for undergraduate courses in England. The situation is different in Scotland where tuition fees are much lower and the government is keen to attract more European students.

Alistair Jarvis, chief executive of the Universities UK group, said: “It is important that other post-Brexit policies ensure an attractive offer to students from the EU and beyond and signal that the UK continues to be a welcoming place for those wishing to study here.”

Trees before graduation
Young Filipinos will have to plant 10 trees before they are allowed to graduate from high school or college under new legislation. If the new law is followed, its advocates estimate that more than 500bn trees could be planted by the next generation over 20 years.

Planting trees has long been a tradition upon graduating in the Philippines but has never been codified in law until now. The south-east Asian country has suffered from severe deforestation in recent decades and it has enduring problems with illegal loggers. The new law is a bid to combat that while also helping endangered species flourish.

Magdalo Party representative Gary Alejano, who wrote the legislation, said: “With 12m students graduating from elementary and 5m students graduating from high school and 500,000 graduating from college each year, this initiative will ensure that at least 175m new trees would be planted each year.

German youth power green vote
The youth vote proved crucial in one of the most seismic European Parliament elections in history. Young Germans in particular delivered a message to the continent by voting in record numbers for the Greens.

While in the UK and France, the Greens enjoyed their best ever performances, in Germany they rocketed to second place for the first time ever, just behind Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats. Their success was achieved by securing 33% of the vote among Germans aged under 30, according to Deutsche Welle.

The Green vote in Germany across all ages was 20.5% and driven by the success of the climate changes protests initiated by young Swede Greta Thunberg and which have seen hundreds of thousands of students skip class to demand government action.

There were also campaigns by popular German blogger and social media stars who urged young people to boycott the establishment parties and vote for an alternative. Matthias Rohrer of the Youth Cultural Research centre in Hamburg said: The old parties haven’t really been doing politics for young people for years and the young people are really frustrated about it.”

Photo: Shutterstock

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