You would be forgiven, over the past 24 months or so, for growing ever more confused about when tuition is “free” and when it is not.  The reason, in part, is that “free” tuition is in the eye of the beholder.

You’d think it would be as easy as saying “no fees”, but it’s actually not that simple.  What if, instead of a fee, there is a variable “contribution” or a gradate tax?  What if fees are charged to a minority of students based on their high school marks (as in most of the former socialist countries in Europe, and parts of Africa)?  What if fees are charged to richer students but not poorer ones?  Or, what if fees are waived for a limited number of years and then kick in?

And that’s just the issue of fee setting.  What if tuition fees exist, but grants or other aid are distributed to help some students cover the costs?  Or, how about if fees exist, and are refunded after graduation in return for some service? And, finally, how do we deal with objections – such as those from American academic, Sara Goldrick-Rab – that free tuition isn’t actually free unless you also cover living expenses?

(This is about where some will say: “education is never free; it always has to be paid for by someone”.  Which is true, but beside the point that I’m making here, which has more to do with retail price.)

And so, forthwith, a quick cheat sheet to all the varieties of “free tuition” available around the world:

Manitoba and Saskatchewan don’t claim to have free tuition, but they actually do have it, subject to certain conditions: essentially, anyone who finishes on-time and stays within the province for a few years to collect their tuition tax rebates will actually receive more money in grants and tax rebates than they spend in tuition.

Ontario has had “net free” tuition for poorer undergraduates for most of the last ten years.  Now, however, they’re actually calling it “free tuition” for dependent students under $50,000 (although there are a couple of caveats). This doesn’t change much in terms of dollars and cents, but the framing seems to matter.  At the same time, a substantial number of college students across Canada have this kind of “net zero” tuition due to a combination of low tuition and large tax credits.  As, indeed, do many students in cheaper 2- and 4-year colleges in the United States.  For instance, a number of US states, including Tennessee and Oregon, now have schemes to ensure that all students – in community colleges, anyway – who have financial need get grants that are at least equal to the amount of their tuition.

Chile goes a bit further than this.  Its new system of “gratuidad” actually waives tuition fees for university students (but not yet colleges or polytechnics) from families below the national median income, which accounts for about 25-30% of the student body.  Similarly, tuition fees in England between 1998 and 2005 were variable according to family income, and those with family incomes below £20,000 paid no tuition.

In most former socialist countries and parts of Africa, there are what are called “dual track” tuition systems.  Students who do well on matriculation or university entrance examinations are allowed to attend for free, while everyone else is charged a fee.

In France, there is an entirely public system of higher education, in which most institutions charge nothing; however, the “grandes ecoles” charge fees of €10,000 or more.  Ireland has “free tuition”, but still charges a whack of other fees, amounting to thousands of euros, which might as well be tuition.

In a whole bunch of countries too disparate to mention, there are public institutions that charge nothing, but also have significant numbers of private institutions that do charge tuition (Germany falls into this category, though the fee-charging institutions only educate about 5% of all students).  And sometimes, as in Romania, this overlaps with the “dual track” tuition system.

Australia does not charge fees, per se, but rather demands a “contribution” from graduates.  The amount of the contribution sure looks like a fee (it is a set amount of money per year of study, based on one’s chosen field of study), but if your post-graduate income never rises above a certain level (currently about $50,000/year), you never pay a cent.  (In a more roundabout way, this is also true in England, even though formally there are fees.)

Greece charges nothing at entrance, but provides essentially no assistance whatsoever with living costs.

Finally, Scandinavian countries charge nothing, and provide more or less all students with grants of varying degrees of generosity to cover living expenses (and loans to cover the remainder).

So there you have it.  Next time someone talks about free tuition, be sure to ask what they mean by “free”.