Higher Education, Equal Access, and Residence Conditions: Does EU Law Allow Member States to Charge Higher Fees to Students Not Previously Resident?
| Published date | 01 September 2005 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1023263X0501200302 |
| Date | 01 September 2005 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
HIGHER EDUCATION, EQUAL ACCESS, AND
RESIDENCE CONDITIONS: DOES EU LAW ALLOW
MEMBER STATES TO CHARGE HIGHER FEES TO
STUDENTS NOT PREVIOUSLY RESIDENT?
GARETH DAVIES*
ABSTRACT
This article looks at the law and policy issues surrounding the practice of chargin g uniform
fees for higher education to home students and students coming from other EU Member
States. It begins with the observation that within the EU such fees are heavily subsidised by
governments and therefore amount to a financial benefit (or a disguised grant) to stude nts.
In the light of this, this article suggests that restricting that subsidy to students resident prior
to their studies would be not only compatible with recent case law on non-discrimination but
would also fit better with the underlying logic of free movement, which denies any right to
benefits for non-economic recent migrants. Secondly, it looks at the policy, and finds that
while equal fees have a number of very positive social effects, they also carry moral and
economic risks. A better approach, less distorting of the market for higher education and more
consistent with the wider EU approach to welfare migration, might be to require exportability
of subsidies from the student’s state of origin.
§ 1. INTRODUCTION
It has long been widely assumed that Member States and their institutions of higher
education are obliged to charge the same fees to all EU students who enrol for study on a
particular course. They can no longer make a distinction between ‘home’ students and
those coming from elsewhere in the EU. Their acceptance of this has made study abroad
both possible and attractive for many students, and has been a major contributing factor
to the dramatic internationalisation of higher education in the EU. However, alongside
12 MJ 3 (2005) 227
* Faculty of Law, University of Groningen.
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