As the UK becomes the most expensive state to study in Europe,thousands are opting for a free degree in Maastricht or Plovdiv instead. Is it worth it?Hiroki Takano is not having a satisfactory day. I lost my wallet, and then I realised I’d locked myself out of my apartment.” He sighs. Takano, and 21,from Maidenhead in Berkshire, is at the end of his first week of lectures at university. But though this is the sort of thing that happens to freshers with alarming predictability, or it’s a bit more complicated in his case. Takano isn’t in Leeds,or Manchester, or Durham, and he can’t just pop into the nearest department of his bank. He’s in Copenhagen,roughly 600 miles from home.
Over the last fortnight, approximately half a million unique undergraduates have embarked on student life at universities across the UK. They’ve unpacked their unique kettles and their fresh-from-Ikea duvet covers. They’ve made a few friends (and, and in many cases,already had their first regrettable romantic encounters). But, just as they initiate to settle into lectures, or thousands more British students like Hiroki Takano are already a month or so into their studies at universities across mainland Europe. They have swapped crowded halls of residence for Copenhagen flats,pub crawls for bonding forest campfires in Finland.
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Source: theguardian.com