England's Average Bachelor-Level Tuition Surpasses That of U.S.

The OECD's latest Education at a Glance report has found that England has the highest university tuition fees in the world on the bachelor level. The average tuition cost for nationals for a year at an English university even surpassed that of the United States by as much as 37 percent when adjusting for cost of living. This is despite the fact that England calculated its figure on the basis of two and three-year degrees, while the United State's excludes so-called short-cycle degrees (which cost on average only around $3,500 per year on a PPP basis). Even on the master level, a U.S. degree was relatively cheaper at just around $12,600 per year on average with PPP taken into account than England's $13,100 for a year of bachelor studies.

OECD countries tend to have different approaches to financing a university education with many nations joining England and the United States in charging relatively high tuition fees, while around a third is not charging any fees at bachelor or equivalent level. England, the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, Lithuania and South Korea all have tuition fees in excess of $5,000 PPP. Chile was not reporting to the 2022/23 edition but also showed annual fees in the thousands in earlier editions. Countries in continental Europe like Spain, France and Germany all tended to have far lower fees by comparison, while Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland have no fees at all.

England's tuition fees weren't always so high, however. Since the beginning of the 2000s, annual costs have increased by more than 700 percent.