Survey: 71% Of Icelandic Students Claim They’re Unable to Fund Studies Without a Job

31 percent of university students in Iceland claim they are experiencing serious financial difficulties, despite the fact that this percentage had decreased from 34 percent last year, the EUROSTUDENT survey has revealed.

According to survey findings, 71 percent of students do not consider themselves financially stable to cover the costs of studying without a job. The situation is worse among students whose parents do not have a university education, with 81 percent being unable to fund their studies without working, Erudera.com reports.

64 percent of students whose parents have not completed university education have more chances to access the labor market before enrolling at a university, compared to 45 percent of students whose parents have a university degree.

Around 72 percent of university students in Iceland work and study at the same time, half of them work more than ten hours per week, whereas a third of them work over 20 hours during a week. 

The survey shows that this proportion of working university students is the third-highest among 26 countries participating in the survey as well as the highest in the Nordic countries.

The 26 countries include Austria, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Iceland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and Slovenia. Whereas,  data for France, Italy, Germany, Portugal, Romania, and Turkey will be included in the final version of the report.

Other results include:

• Over 80 percent of students whose parents are university-educated have started their higher studies within two years of graduation, while only 60 percent of those whose parents do not hold a university degree begin studies within that period of time.
• 79 percent of students claim they would recommend university studies, adding they have found a course which suits them well. 66 percent said they were certain they would attend university.
• More than 90 percent of participants say they have a good interaction with teachers, and 75 percent say teachers are overall interested in how students are engaging in learning.
• Some other findings regarding university students’ age turn out to be very interesting. The report points out that university students in Iceland are older than in Europe; nevertheless, in Iceland, the second-lowest percentage of students is under the age of 25, which is lower only in Finland.

53 percent of students have spent one year or more to complete their studies at the upper secondary level before jumping to university. At the same time, 28 percent decide to take a break longer than two years.

The survey, which for the period 2018-2021 has collected answers from more than 2,600 participants, is assembled every three years, and this is the second time when Iceland participates.