Students formulate common answers to education budget cuts

LIVERPOOL – Who should pay for higher education? The students themselves, the state or should companies contribute as well? These questions will be answered at the ‘Financing the Students’ Future’ conference from the European Students’ Union (ESU) which takes place from 24 to 26 November in Liverpool.

At the moment, there is a widespread trend in the EU to cut down on higher education budgets and this seminar, to be attended by over 100 participants from 30 European countries, aims to confront different views on funding higher education. Are there common principles and ideas for financing systems at national levels? Moreover, the outcomes so far from the ‘Financing the Students’ Future’ (FINST) will be presented. FINST is a two-year long project led by the European Students’ Union which started in May 2011.

During three days there will be debates, panel discussions and workshops that look at financing of higher education from different perspectives. Participants will discuss the financing of students’ support services and how to improve the financing systems throughout the continent.
Background
The FINST project aims to increase the knowledge of the effects of financing systems in Europe over students and to work on the capacity building of the national unions of students to improve their active involvement in higher education funding reforms. More information about FINST and its activities can be found here: http://esu-online.org/projects/current/finst/. You can also follow FINST on twitter: #FINST.

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Published: 24 November 2011
For more information, please contact: Allan Päll, ESU Chairperson: +32/479.591.499 or allan@esu-online.org or Marianne Slegers, ESU Communications Manager: +32/473.669.894 or marianne@esu-online.org