The Norwegian government decided to remove the tradition of offering free international education for foreign students in Norway in 2023, and rather require all students from non-EEA countries to pay full tuition for their position.
There has been a lot of speculations as to how much the tuition fee is going to cost, but the University of Stavanger (UiS) has publicly declared their tuition fees starting from fall 2023.
The yearly tuition fees for non-EEA students at UiS in 2023 will be 80,000 NOK ($8,000) for bachelor programs, 125,000 NOK ($12,500) for master programs in social sciences, economy sciences, healthcare sciences and humanities, and 150,000 NOK ($15,000) for master programs in natural sciences, technology and art.
This tuition fee have to be paid before you can register as a student, and is paid yearly. So the fee includes two semesters worth of courses.
Bachelor programs are 3 years long, while master programs are only two years, so expect to pay 240,000 NOK for a full bachelor degree or 250,000 to 300,000 NOK for a master’s degree from University of Stavanger.
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This price is still cheaper than the cost
Despite a high cost of 80,000 NOK and more per year, the university claims that the real cost is even much higher. For certain programs, the cost could be as much as 250,000 NOK per year per student, meaning that the university will lose money even with these high tuition fees.
As a matter of fact, multiple Norwegian universities have announced that they may reduce their staff or otherwise reduce operational costs to cover the loss of governmental grants from international students.
So why not price it higher? According to UiS, the reason is simply because they need to be competitive with the prices of other universities in Europe, and pricing it at the level of the actual cost would make it unreasonably expensive compared to other universities.
Other universities are expected to publish their tuition fees soon
It is expected that all Norwegian universities will publicly declare their tuition fees for new foreign students in 2023 in the early spring. It is obviously important to have this information ready before the deadline to apply for a spot, and it seems likely that most universities will announce their tuition fees in February or March.
I will not likely make a new article for each and every university that announces their prices, but check back in late March or April for a full list of the different tuition fees at Norwegian universities.
EEA, EU and Norwegian citizens still get free education in Norway
It’s important to keep in mind that the tuition fees are only for students from outside of EU, EEA or Norway. So if you belong to any of these regions, you won’t need to pay any tuition fees at all, and universities are as cheap as they were before 2023.
However, people from outside of the EA/EEA need to pay the tuition fee in full. UiS announced that they will require you to pay the entire tuition fee before you actually begin life as a student at the university, so you will need to have the amount ready on your bank account prior to starting the education.
In addition to the 80,000 to 150,000 annual tuition fee, The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) requires that you have 128,887 NOK (around $13,000) per year to study in Norway. So you need to have a total of at least 200,000 NOK / $20,000 per year for studying in Norway.
This clearly makes Norway one of the most expensive countries to study in, and it will be a very expensive education for non-EEA students even if you choose to live in one of the cheapest cities for international students.
PS. Any student that comes to Norway for a semester or a year as part of an international student exchange program are also exempt from the tuition fees.
