Ensuring quality higher education for our children is a dream for all parents. Arranging the finance for child’s higher education is one of the big goals in every financial plan. In this hypercompetitive world, education is becoming a costly affair. Many deserving candidates get left out due to lack of finances or lack of knowledge about cracking the finance puzzle. This phenomenon is more pronounced when the education in focus is outside India.

For Indians, preferred education destination have been USA, UK, CANADA, Australia and New Zealand. This is where they find their own diaspora and feel relatively safe then in any other country. But, the cost of education here are so high that 99% of students in India cannot afford, even with some help from scholarships. Further, the cost of living and travelling can be prohibitively expensive, according to Indian standards.

It is a surprise that most Indian students are ignoring opportunities in countries like Germany, France, Italy, Norway, Sweden, etc. Perhaps the mental block is that since these nations are not English speaking, Indians will not be able to cope up. But the fact is that there are ample courses which are imparted in English. However, knowing bit of local language will go a long way in gaining employment within these countries.

Also, one must not make a mistake of judging that these countries are any inferior to US / UK in terms of quality of education.  We can fairly assess the quality of education in an university by looking at its focus on research, as well as the average salary drawn by students.

The Table 1 enlists a few European Universities that are ridiculously affordable, with good salary opportunities for passing students and have produced Noble Laureates due to their focus on R&D.

The above list is not exhaustive. There are many more universities in Europe which are affordable and are a good match to US universities. This is not to say that US education is not worth the high price. The pay packages for graduates from US universities are generally higher than European universities. But US universities come at a price tag of something like 40 lakhs to 50 lakhs a year. So, for a 4 years program, parents need to shell out around 1.50 Cr to 2 Cr. In comparison, European universities are available at 5 lakhs to 10 lakhs per annum. Depending upon your affordability, higher education in European universities may prove to be a better investment for your child.