Western Europe Colleges and Universities

Overview

This region includes 20 countries in the western part of Europe of which Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain and France are the largest. It had a total population of about 380 million people as of 2009.

All of the Western European countries are considered to be high-income, developed countries whose residents maintain very high standards of living. According to the United Nation's Human Development Index which measures income, life expectancy and education, all of the Western European nations fall into their top category of "Very High Human Development". In general, this region is considered to have more extensive social welfare systems than other regions of the world.

All but four Western European countries are members of the European Union. This economic and political union of 27 states (as of 2010) has created a single, open market which allows people and goods to move freely between countries. Member countries allow each other's citizens to attend higher education institutions at the same tuition rates as local residents.

Higher Education

Higher education institutions in Western Europe provide a consistently high quality of education, especially at the public institutions. Tuition fees for students studying at public institutions in most Western European countries is very low and sometimes free due to high levels of government support. Even international students from outside of the EU tend to pay much lower tuition than they would pay in the US.

Almost all Western European countries have signed on to the Bologna Agreement which standardizes higher education across Europe and makes degrees recognizable across all member countries. However, due to long-standing traditions as well as differing government priorities within countries, there are significant differences in admissions policies, accessibility, program structure and culture. For instance, in Austria, students have a great deal of flexibility and regularly take years longer than necessary to earn a degree while in Spain, programs are highly structured, allowing little freedom for students to explore subjects outside their major.

The countries with the highest ranking universities on various lists include the United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Norway, Denmark and Germany. Among the mostly highly ranked are the United Kingdom's University of Cambridge and University College London as well as the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, France's École normale supérieure de Paris (aka ENS), the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and the University of Oslo in Norway.

Resources

European Association for International Education

European University Association

Bologna Process Official Website 2007-2010

Bologna Process Official Website 2010–2012