Norwegian Students
are cheating, too...
Just a week after news broke that former members of Norway's parliament are facing charges of collecting more pension benefits than they should, comes news that students are effectively cheating the system as well.
 Students assembled for matriculation into the Unversity of Oslo this fall. PHOTO: ERLEND AAS / SCANPIX Finding housing is expensive and difficult in most Norwegian university towns, which may explain why some students have been caught cheating. PHOTO: SVEIN ERIK FURULUND |
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Newspaper Dagsavisen, which broke last week's top story about pension overpayments to former MPs, also reported Monday that students are collecting far more student aid than they should.
That's because they're using false addresses, indicating they're out on their own, when in reality they're living at home with their parents. In most cases, that implies far lower housing costs than otherwise stated, and should result in much lower financial aid grants (called utdanningsstipend in Norwegian).
There is no tuition at state universities in Norway, as compared to the fees charged college students in the US, for example, but students are responsible for their books, supplies, various minor fees and all living expenses.
Parents in Norway are not viewed as being primarily responsible for the college expenses of their offspring, so most students over the legal age of 18 apply for grants and loans and many work on the side. This results in most students finishing their college years at much older ages than in the US, and in considerable debt.
Around 150,000 students in Norway currently are financing their studies through the state education loan fund, Statens Lånekassen. It distributes as much as NOK 17 billion annually (around USD 3 billion) in the form of loans and grants.
Just over 8,000 of those studying today have reported that they live at home with their parents. Another 43,000 report addresses close to their parents' addresses, but can theoretically live at home.
Officials at Lånekassen recently ran a check of the students' actual residential circumstances and found that 4.5 percent were collecting grants by using a false address, reported Dagsavisen. They collectively may have swindled the system for as much as NOK 65 million.
"This is very serious, said Astrid Mjærum of Lånekassen. "The dishonest students are stealing from society, and undermine the entire system."
Those caught can be denied future student financing for life, and grants they have received will be turned into debt that they must repay.
Nina Berglund
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