Growing numbers of British school leavers are shunning higher education at home in favour of universities in the EU, forced out by sky-high tuition fees and attracted by degree courses taught entirely in English.

Groningen, the biggest university in the Netherlands and ranked between Bristol and Warwick in the world academic league tables, has received twice as many applications from British students for the 2015-16 year compared to last year. Around 285 British undergraduates will start courses this week in the northern Dutch city, compared to only 135 last year.

Maastricht University, the trailblazer for courses taught entirely in English, has more than 370 students from Britain, while colleges such as Aarhus in Denmark and the Freie Universität in Berlin are starting to see a flow of students from the other side of the North Sea.

I will leave with less than £4,000 in debt. And I’m having a whale of a time Jonah Thompson

The global dominance of English means many universities in the EU are now opening undergraduate courses, particularly in business, economics and IT, taught entirely in English. What’s more, students within the EU have to be offered the same financial terms as domestic students – which at many universities means there are no tuition fees.

The last regional government in Germany to impose tuition fees abandoned them in 2014, meaning all of the country’s 2.4 million students pay nothing. In Denmark, tuition fees are also zero for anyone from the EU.

In the Netherlands, the annual fee is £1,400 a year, but British students have the same rights as Dutch students in applying for government loans to cover the fees.

British students in many EU universities also talk of much lower living costs, particularly rents, and are benefitting from the sharp rise in the value of sterling against the euro over the past year.

While a student at Bristol will pay a minimum of £424 a month for a single room in a university residence, in Groningen it is £339. A postgraduate student in Berlin said his rent for a large one-bed self-contained flat in the city centre was £290 a month, compared to £1,400 for the same sort of flat in London.

Jonah Thompson, from Midhurst, West Sussex, is just starting his second year at Groningen studying law, says: “My friends at the English universities will be coming out with £50,000 in debt. I will leave with less than £4,000 in debt. And I’m having a whale of a time.”

Sophie Bray from Nottingham is studying hospitality management at the Dutch university of Stenden in Leeuwarden, a four-year course not only taught in English but which also offers three months at its sister academic site in Bali, Indonesia. “I am with five other British students and others from all around the world. It’s probably more academic than the average British university – there’s no playing about, and nightlife is not exactly raucous as it is in Nottingham.”

Sophie Bray is studying in Holland. Photograph: Sophie Bray

Dutch universities started term this week, unlike most of their English counterparts, where terms don’t start for another three weeks.

Bray took two years out to travel. “It is interesting living and working with people who are all from different upbringings and backgrounds which makes you step out of your comfort zone, and it also makes you easily adaptable and culturally intelligent,” she adds. “Leeuwarden is also a very relaxed and chilled place to be.”

Thompson says that one stark contrast to British universities is that the first year workload is quite heavy, with the Dutch happy to admit lots of students and see how they get on, rather than screen them out beforehand. “Out of the 100 students who joined my course, we lost about 30 in the first year. This is quite common.”

Around a quarter of Groningen’s 190,000 population are undergraduates, which makes for a more lively student scene. “But it’s not like Britain – it has only one of the sort of nightclubs you see at home,” Thompson says. “It’s retained so much more of its Dutch culture. But there is a massive association culture, with clubs and societies for everything.”

The British are the third largest non-Dutch contingent after the Germans and the Chinese, he says, and he has found the Dutch hugely welcoming. “Everyone speaks English … to show how much the Dutch welcome you, I even managed to get elected to the faculty council.”

While the Netherlands and the Nordic countries were among the first to start courses taught entirely in English, in part because of the relative obscurity of their own languages, in France it is another matter. Apart from a few business school postgraduate courses, it’s impossible to find any in France that are not in the mother tongue (and likewise in England). In Germany, Italy and Spain, English-taught first degree courses are still rare, but there are a growing number of master’s and postgraduate courses entirely in English.

Oscar Norris-Broughton, 27, graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in history, and is now doing a master’s in global history at the Freie Universität in Berlin.

It is a two-year course taught in English, with zero tuition fees – and students even get a free travel pass for the city. “I found the price of higher education in Britain to be completely untenable, and the cost of living in Brighton is so much higher than Berlin. I am now at a fair level of proficiency in German, but I didn’t have any when I first came here, although that didn’t matter as so many people speak English really well, and the course was in English. I couldn’t recommend it highly enough.”

However, students from England and Wales cannot obtain loans from the Student Loans Company and use them to study abroad, although Scottish students can take their loans with them.

There is also the risk that the UK votes to pull out of the EU, which is likely to make the financial equation much less attractive, unless Britain remains in the EEA.

What’s on offer where, and what it costs





Netherlands

Courses taught in English There are 13 research universities, but some do not teach bachelor degrees in the English language. Currently, only the University of Groningen and Maastricht University offer courses in English in more than five subjects, although most have plans to increase undergraduate education in English.

Note that Dutch universities offer a liberal arts-style of education where you tend to study a range of subjects before going on to specialise at a later stage, rather than the British single-subject bachelor’s degree approach.

Tuition fees £1,432 for most courses in 2015-16 for EU students, who are also eligible for a state loan. The interest rate on the “collegegeldkrediet” is 0.81% and for a three-year undergraduate degree you are likely to owe around £4,400.

Living costs Largely on a par with the UK. Amsterdam is the most expensive. Rents are around £238-£367 a month.

Travel costs Trains from London to Maastricht via Eurostar take around 4.5 hours and cost around £60 one way booked in advance.

Denmark

Courses taught in English 500 degree programmes and 1,300 courses taught in English, although there is a bias towards master’s rather than undergraduate degrees. Lots of business/economics, IT and engineering courses in English.

Tuition fees Zero for students from the EU and the European Economic Area (EU nations plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein).

Living costs Can be spectacularly high in Copenhagen, less so outside. Rents for college-run accommodation in Aarhus start at £230 a month.

Travel costs Aarhus is especially cheap with budget airlines from Britain. For Copenhagen, it is cheaper to fly to Malmo in Sweden and cross the bridge.

Ireland

Courses taught in English If you need the answer to this one, perhaps you should reconsider going to university.

Tuition fees The major universities – such as Trinity, University College Dublin, University College Cork, NUI Galway – charge around £4,266 for most degrees, rising to £6,430 for medicine.

Living costs Dublin is not cheap. On-campus accommodation at UCD is £4,170-£5,667 per academic year. In Cork, campus rooms are more like £3,300 a year, and flatshares in the city start at around £200 a month, while Galway is cheaper still.

Number of British students An expected surge of tuition-fee dodging Brits has failed to materialise. UCD says it has few UK students, which may be because of the lingering perception that Dublin is an expensive city.

Travel costs London-Dublin is the world’s busiest international air route, with return fares on budget airlines from £40, while the London-Dublin train and ferry starts from £32 one way.

Germany

Courses taught in English Berlin’s Freie Universität has one undergraduate course taught in English (North American Studies), but like other German universities it has numerous master’s programmes in English.

Tuition fees These were finally abolished in 2014 for all Germany’s 2.4m students – same applies to EU students.

Living costs Slightly lower than the UK overall, and much cheaper than London (this is the home of Lidl and Aldi). Rents are much lower – even in an expensive city such as Munich, student rents are typically £183-£260 a month.

Travel costs Northern Germany easily served by trains from London via Eurostar, and numerous budget airlines.

Belgium

Courses taught in English Still relatively limited, with most undergraduate courses in French. But it is possible to find some degrees entirely in English, such as the business and economics at KU Leuven in Brussels.

Tuition fees EU students at Flemish institutions pay a variable fee, usually around £440 a year, while those in the French community area pay around £274-£613.

Living costs Brussels will be expensive, but the rest of Belgium is in line with, or lower than, UK costs.

Travel costs Superb train connections on Eurostar to Brussels from £59 return.

Other countries

Sweden has a number of degrees taught in English, but living costs are high. Annual fees for most non-EU students are £6,000-£10,800. In France, undergraduate fees are just £150 a year at most public universities. In Italy the fees are around £1,000 a year and in Spain you pay per “credit”, but it works out at about £440-£734 a year.

Among the main English speaking nations, Canada is about best value. Its tuition fees average £3,000 a year, ranging from around £4,000 in Toronto to just £1,300 in Labrador or Newfoundland.

Tuition fees for international students in Australia and New Zealand are a lot higher, ranging from £7,000-£16,000.

Some top American universities charge gobsmacking tuition fees, with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology priciest at around £30,000 a year.

South Africa shouldn’t be ruled out; its top-ranking university, Cape Town, charges international students around £2,000 a year, with student flatshares in relatively safe parts of town from around £200 per month.

• All currency conversions correct as of 2 September 2015.

Find out more

Netherlands: Studyinholland.co.uk lists courses taught in English at undergraduate and postgraduate level, and provides advice on financial matters and the application process; Denmark: studyindenmark.dk; Germany: studying-in-germany.org; Sweden: studyinsweden.se; Belgium: studyinbelgium.be.

• This article was amended on 7 September 2015. An earlier version said tuition fees in Sweden were £6,000-£10,800. These only apply for students who are not citizens of an EU/EEA/Nordic country or Switzerland.