The Finnish government is planning to introduce tuition fees to be collected from some foreign students coming from outside the EU or the European Economic Area, local media has reported recently.
The tuition fee per semester would be 4,000 euros (5,036 U.S. dollars) at least. Some programmes could charge more.
The new plan would still exempt non-EU/ETA students if they would study in Finnish or Swedish or if they were exchange students.
Currently university education in Finland is free to almost everyone admitted.
The change would require that universities should create a scholarship programme open for financially challenged students from outside the EU or ETA.
The current government was able to agree on the would-be change following the resignation of the Green Party ministers.
Within Parliament, a Member's Bill was presented earlier suggesting that tuition fees should be introduced, and 119 out of 200 MPs signed.
The chairman of the coalition party's parliamentary caucus MP Arto Satonen said to national radio that he believed the government plan about tuition fees would be accepted.
Finnish student organizations fear that fees collected from non-EU/ETA students would be just the beginning and would lead to other fees, according to media reports.
The government plan would not allow foreign students to obtain tax concessions based on study costs if they would choose to stay in Finland after their studies.