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<title> Swedish students and their education </title>
Isn't it wonderful that we in Sweden can go to universities without paying fees? But did you know that you only can get loans for six years (240 weeks) of studying? What about the loans, how long does it take to pay them back?
What if you want to become a doctor and you also would like to study English for one year? That takes at least six and a half year of studying and you can only get loans for the first six years. How will you manage the last twenty weeks on the doctor's education? You can't study and work at the same time, not on a tough program like that.
I thought it was good to have a wide education, so that you have better chances to get a more interesting job. I personally like to study and would like to do that for many years.
I'm going to apply fore veterinary studies next autumn and then I need loans for 220 weeks. I also take loans to finance this English course. That means that I can't get loans to study, for example, English B this spring. I would also like to study a language abroad, but how can I finance that, when I can't take more loans?
I personally think that it's important that people study on the university. It would be good if you could get loans for all the courses and programs that you would like to take. But you must, of course, pass your course/program to get loans for another one.
At the moment the loans are up to 1062 SEK per week and the grants are 557 SEK per week. Can you actually live on that? Yes, you can, but it's often harder if you live in a bigger and more expensive city like Stockholm for example.
We often hear people talk about their study loans that they still, many years after graduation, have to amortise. How much do you actually pay back? I did a simulation, on the internet at CSN's homepage (www.csn.se), to see how big my loan would be if I studied to become a vet. If I take the maximum loan (1062 SEK per week), that would, in the end of the education, be loans for 254 880 SEK and that would give me a dept to pay back at 284 041 SEK On this loan you have an interest that changes from year to year and you also have an interest that raises your annual amount with 2 per cent each year. This means that you lose money every year that you have never been given; unfortunately this frightens young people to go on and study at the university after upper secondary school.
One idea is that you would get a salary from the state when you study at the university. But what if the students, after graduating, move to another country and work there? Then the Swedish state wouldn't get anything back through taxes, and would therefor lose on giving grants to the students. A better idea is to give loans and if the students, after graduating, work in Sweden for a couple of year, then they could write off the loan. I think that would make more people apply fore higher education. It also would make more students stay and work here in Sweden. For example many nurses have moved to other countries like Norway, because the salaries are higher there. I think that we on this way can get, at least, some of them to stay in Sweden.
This autumn the number of people searching to higher education got lower. As I say; the state must do something to keep young people to search to the universities. If they can't raise the grants, then they at least could arrange so that your loan writes off if you work in Sweden for a couple of years. If a person would like to study for more then six years they must be able to get loans and grants for that. Don't we want more people to be educated? Then the state must do something about it, otherwise more and more people will be uneducated!
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