Thanks ('thanks') to the new government, university is set to get much more expensive - grants are being replaced with loans and changes to the repayment structure means that students from the poorest backgrounds could be graduating with debt of up to £53,000.

While further education is one of the biggest outgoing costs in anyone's life other than buying a home (good luck with that one too), it's usually worth it, but governments in developed countries foot less of the bill compared to the UK than you might think, as 2011 data from the OECD shows:

The cost for one year's tuition at university in England is currently £9,000 (but less in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland).

In other developed countries, it is significantly higher: the Scandinavian countries all charge more than £12,000 a year, and Canada, which also has a generous welfare system, is the most expensive place to go to university with an average cost of £17,591 a year.

And this chart only takes public institutions into account. In the US, attending a state college or university costs an average of £16,722 a year, but attending a private school can cost a lot more. Sarah Lawrence, a liberal arts college in upstate New York, is the most expensive in the country: tuition there for one year of a four-year course is an eye-watering £32,636.

If you want to learn without bankrupting yourself, move to Germany - undergraduate tuition for both domestic and international students is completely free.

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