25 COUNTRIES, variously rich or poor, already have free university education (2017)

25 variously rich or poor countries already have free university education. Many countries, both rich and poor, have made tertiary education free for their citizens (and in some cases also for non-citizens) , the list including (GDP per capita in US dollars in brackets; UN data, 2014-2015): Argentina ($12,645) , Barbados ($15,429), Brazil ($11,387), Chile ($14,528), China ($7,617), Cuba ($7,274), Czech Republic ($19,470), Denmark ($61,294), Ecuador ($6,346), Estonia ($20,122), Finland ($49,678), France ($42, 802), Germany ($47,966), Greece ($21,414), Iceland ($52,048), Libya ($6,602), Malta ($23,281), Mauritius ($9,945), Norway ($97,226), Scotland ($24,060), Slovenia ($23,954), Sweden ($58,856), Trinidad and Tobago ($20,452), Turkey ($9,126) and Uruguay ($15,574) but not the Anglosphere countries of Australia ($62,290), Canada ($50,169), Ireland ($53,648), New Zealand ($44,189), UK ($46,461) and the US ($54,306).

In addition, Nigeria ($3,203), university education is free for Science, Education & Technology students. Some further countries provide university education that is very cheap from a Western perspective, namely Austria ($44,118), Belgium ($40,278), India ($1,614), Italy ($30,426), Mexico ($8,981), Spain ($25,865), and Taiwan ($22,263) In some further countries free university education is available based on means or ability e.g. Canada ($43,206; means-based free places in Ontario) and Russia ( $9,243; competition-based free places) (see Gideon Polya, “50 reasons for free university education as we bequeath the young a dying planet”, Countercurrents, 19 March 2017: http://www.countercurrents.org/2017/03/19/50-reasons-for-free-university-education-as-we-bequeath-the-young-a-dying-planet/ ).