Evidence has come to light that some Norwegian university students are cheating the system. It would appear that the students are collecting student aid they are not entitled to. The news comes in the wake of a scandal facing Norwegian ex-parliament members accused of tweaking their pension benefits.
The same newspaper that broke the MP pension story, Dagsavisen, also discovered that university students are using fake addresses to claim they are living independent of their parents. By living alone, the students are entitled to much more financial aid because living costs should be higher than when staying at home.
In Norway, parents are not considered to be primarily responsible for their children’s university costs. Most legitimate students over the age of 18 must work part time or apply for loans and grants to make it through college. Most students graduate at an older age, and with much greater debts, than students from some other countries.
Of the 150,000 Norwegian students financing their education through Statens Lanekassen, a student loan agency, only 8,000 state that they live with their parents. However, around 43,000 students list addresses near their parents’ residence, but likely still stay at home. When officials at Statens Lanekassen ran checks on all its borrowers, it found that 4.5 per cent were collecting aid using false addresses.
Astrid Mjaerum of Statens Lanekassen said, “The dishonest students are stealing from society, and undermine the entire system.” Any student caught cheating the system will have to repay any grants and will be refused any future student aid.
Joel: Migrations after college are irrelevant. How many Master’s level, professional and PhD programs are available in Scandinavian countries is relevant. Assuming they move out at all, just because they move out after completion of a bachelor’s degree does not mean they will not move back. If there is a net loss, it is because it is far easier to move out than into of Scandinavia.
As for the abuses, yes, that is bad, but it is rare not common and tracking it is getting easier, not harder. One also has to consider that if the government is not covering these costs, who will? Businesses cry over these matters, but they are unwilling to risk investments in students. Just look at the low level of scholarships available and you immediately can tell this is not going to magically be replaced by a better system by private industry. Othwrwise private industry would have built a better system long ago and the state investment in education would never have existed.
@Fisy – 95,5% of the actual group follows the rules. Political this is not an issue on this rock – in fact is the problem even less than it was 10 years ago. The basics in the system is that everybody have the possibility to take further education independent of parents/family background.
If you want a society to grow, you must invest in the youth. It is as simple as that.
This is all about the overgenerousness of welfare state.
If there is less free money given there will be less abuse.
Its simple as that.
Auditing and checking is fine in its own way but best not to make so much free money available in first place.
Same Situation is there in Denmark, I also came across a story recently posted on a news. Danish students, once complete their student like (College education etc..) they migrate to another EU countries or America. Since education is free in Danish, a lot of students cheats Government too.
Those students who cheated on their grants should be dealt the appropriate penalty. They should be given harsh community work in order to repay the community because it was the community that funded their grants in the first place.