Free universities for international students still exist regardless of the fact that some governments in Europe have stopped giving free tuition fees to international students. Sweden for example used to give free education to applicants all over the world including Nigerian applicants and Africa as a whole. The tuition fees for these free universities have been funded by the government of these countries only. But recently, the Swedish government changed its policy and decided to charge tuition fees. This decision is not general because some applicants from other countries are not affected by the policy.

In short, this policy affects citizens from countries outside the European Union and the European Economic Area. Residents of Sweden who do not have residence permits are also affected by this policy.

This policy is effective immediately from the beginning of the fall 2011 semester. The last admission before that is for the spring 2011 semester. Therefore, persons applying for the spring semester are not affected by this policy until they complete their program at the universities to which they are accepted. The deadline for applications for this spring semester is 15th August 2010 while the deadline for submitting supporting documents is 1st September 2010. Applicants will be notified of their results by the beginning of November.

If you are not lucky to apply before the above deadline, there are still other universities in Europe that offer free education to international students. Since the Government of Sweden stopped giving free tuition fees to international students as of the fall semester 2011, some European countries have not stopped giving free tuition fees to international students. But the truth is that no one knows the future plan of these countries to change their educational policy regarding free education for international students.