Free education

Free education is education funded through government spending or charitable organizations rather than tuition funding. Primary school and other comprehensive or compulsory education is free in most countries. Tertiary education is also free in certain countries, including post-graduate studies in Guyanaand the Nordic countries.
The Article 13 of International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights ensures the right to free education at primary education and progressive introduction of it at secondary and higher education as the right to education.

Free education is a human right

Free education--at various levels--has been guaranteed by both domestic constitutions and in international human rights treaties.
The cost of education first became a subject of international law following World War I, although only for certain countries and only in limited situations. The "Minority Treaties" guaranteed racial, religious, and linguistic minorities in specific European countries an equal right with other nationals to establish schools at their own expense, but where such groups formed a considerable proportion of the population, they were assured of an equitable share of public educational funds, as well as instruction in their languages in public primary schools.
In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declared that everyone has a right to education, and that education "shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages."
In the first treaty dedicated to education--the 1960 Convention against Discrimination in Education-- states undertake to "make primary education free and compulsory; make secondary education in its different forms generally available and accessible to all; make higher education equally accessible to all on the basis of individual capacity."
Under the 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, countries recognize "the right of everyone to education," and that "primary education shall be compulsory and available free to all;" secondary education, including technical and vocational education, "shall be made generally available and accessible to all by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education;" and that "higher education shall be made equally accessible to all, on the basis of capacity, by every appropriate means, and in particular by the progressive introduction of free education." Countries undertake to "achieve progressively the full realization" of this right by all appropriate means and "to the maximum" of available resources.
The 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child states that countries "recognize the right of the child to education" and that they "shall, in particular … Make primary education compulsory and available free to all; Encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, including general and vocational education, make them available and accessible to every child, and take appropriate measures such as the introduction of free education and offering financial assistance in case of need; Make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means."
In June 2024, the UN's Human Rights Council approved the establishment of a working group with the mandate of "exploring the possibility of, elaborating and submitting to the Human Rights Council a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child with the aim to:... Explicitly state that, with a view to achieving the right to education, States shall: Make public pre-primary education available free to all, beginning with at least one year; Make public secondary education available free to all."

Countries

State universities in the Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Iceland, Norway, Saudi Arabia and Sweden do not charge international students with tuition fees for Ph.D. degrees and in some cases for bachelor's and master's degrees as well.

State

Local language-taught bachelor's and master's degrees tuition fees for international students

English-taught bachelor's and master's degrees tuition fees for international students

Ph.D. degrees tuition fees for international students

Ph.D. degrees tuition fees for EEA students

Austriayes|Free at state universities

History

In the Islamic Golden Age a tradition of free madrasa-based education arose.
Free education has long been identified with "sponsored education"; for example, during the Renaissance, rich dignitaries commonly sponsored the education of young men as patrons.
Thomas Jefferson proposed "establishing free schools to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, and from these schools those of intellectual ability, regardless of background or economic status, would receive a college education paid for by the state."
In the Soviet Union, Vladmir Lenin's government instituted a number of progressive measures which included access to universal education.
In Sri Lanka, C. W. W. Kannangara introduced universal free education from kindergarten up to undergraduate degree, becoming the first country to implement free education on national scale.
In the United States, Townsend Harris founded the first free public institution of higher education, the Free Academy of the City of New York, in 1847; it aimed to provide free education to the urban poor, immigrants and their children. Its graduates went on to receive 10 Nobel Prizes, more than any other public university. During the late 19th century, the United States government introduced compulsory education as free or universal education, which extended across the country by the 1920s.
It is the oldest of CUNY's 25 institutions of higher learning and is considered its flagship. Other primacies at City College that helped shape the culture of American higher education include the first student government in the nation ; the first national fraternity to accept members without regard to religion, race, color or creed ; the first degree-granting evening program. City College of New York. In 1944, U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed the Serviceman's Readjustment Act, also known as the GI Bill of Rights, into law. The GI Bill allowed World War II veterans to attend universities at no cost to them.
A report regarding free higher education was prepared by President Truman in 1947, however, no action was taken, according to what was written in the report. Therefore, it never became a reality. One possible reason could be the ongoing Cold War at that time, which made President Truman shift his focus from the report to the war-defense spending.
Governments typically fund compulsory education through taxes. Aggravated truancy can be prosecuted. Homeschooling, private or parochial schooling usually offer legal alternatives.
With the start of many free internet-based learning institutions such as edX and MITx, anyone in the world with Internet access can take free education-courses. In many countries, the policy for the merit system has not yet caught up with these recent advances in education technology.
After the 2011–13 Chilean student protests, tuition-free college was a major campaign promise of Chilean president Michelle Bachelet in 2013. After some years marshaling support and funding, the gratuidad law was passed in 2018, and as of 2019 covers tuition at participating schools for families in the bottom 60% of earnings nation-wide.

On the Internet

Online education has become an option in recent years, particularly with the development of free MOOCs from providers such as Khan Academy and Higher Education, through providers such as edX, Coursera, Udacity, FutureLearn and Alison. Free education has become available through several websites with some resembling the courses of study of accredited universities. Online education faces barriers such as institutional adoption, license or copyright restrictions, incompatibility and educator awareness of available resources.
Due to the extensive requirements of resources for online education, many open community projects have been initiated. Specifically, the Wikimedia Foundation has developed a project devoted to free online educational resources, Wikiversity, and recently, several other sites for specific topics have developed.
Christian Leaders Institute offers tuition free college level ministry education. Students can take any classes free of charge, but are encouraged to help support the mission of the institution by making donations to this 501 3 United States Charity.
The Islamic Open University, a distance-learning higher education institution, offers tuition-free graduate and undergraduate degrees. A very modest registration fee is charged per semester, which is based on the human development index and thus varies from country to country. The IOU is offering one million scholarships for African youths by 2020.
Nidahas Vidyalaya has started an initiative named Freedom College towards providing tuition-free education in Sri Lanka.

Other examples

Free education does not only take the form of publicly funded institutions like state universities.
In France, philosopher Michel Onfray created the first non-governmental free education university since antiquity, in 2002, with his Université populaire de Caen in Normandy. His decision was triggered by the accession of far-right party Front National to the second round of the 2002 French presidential elections. Onfray stated that people need more political, historical and philosophical background education to be more conscious citizens. His university is run by an association loi 1901.
In Iran, Nasra is a movement aiming to meet the learning needs of all children, youth and adults in 2018. This social movement focuses on digital media use and mental health and increase the skills of using the media for the public.