Working-class students find low-budget education abroad_美文

Working-class students find low-budget education abroad

"Besides, the cost of living for a student in a Nordic country is about 60,000 yuan each year. So, a yearly budget of 100,000 yuan is OK," he said.

Zhang said the overall cost of studying in a Nordic country is less than half or a third of the cost of programs in the UK or the US.

"For many Chinese working-class families with a yearly income between 100,000 yuan and 200,000 yuan, such a cost is not a heavy burden. That means they can afford it," he said.

Situations in other parts of Europe, like Germany, France, Spain and Italy, are similar.

According to Si Qin, a consultant on studying in Europe at Vision Overseas, a consulting company under the New Oriental Education and Technology Group, all the public colleges and universities in those countries provide free tuition. Students only have to pay a registration fee, which is no more than 1,000 euros ($1,321), as well as meeting living costs ranging from 50,000 to 100,000 yuan each year.

Si said her organization helped about 250 Chinese students gain university places in these four countries this year, among which half come from working-class families.

Yang Lu, a 22-year-old from Xi'an, Shaanxi province, has just come back to China this summer with a bachelor's degree in French literature from a university in France.

Yang's mother, Jiang Yaping, said she and her husband earn about 10,000 yuan a month, and they had prepared an annual budget of 100,000 yuan for their daughter.