Published in a report in The Independent in the wake of Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement of plans to scrap student maintenance grants and raise tuition fees, HSBC’s research found that the Portuguese capital is among the cheapest destinations in the world to study per year, second only to Poland.
The piece, published in the British national newspaper last Friday, shows that studying at the University of Lisbon is only slightly more expensive than at Poland’s University of Warsaw, where UK students would seemingly be over £5,000 better-off each year, based on current UK funding grants of around £9,353.27.
According to HSBC’s findings, total costs for a year at the University of Warsaw – including accommodation, cost of living, three return flights to the UK, and the cost of return travel to the nearest country – comes to a grand total of £4,119.16 (or around €5,865).
Portugal’s University of Lisbon came in just over £1,500 more expensive, at a total cost of £5,640.35 (€8,019).
Head of foreign exchange at HSBC UK, Oliver Cook, told The Independent how spending a year abroad whilst at university has become increasingly popular amongst students.
“As students begin to look at options for studying abroad for the 2015/2016 academic year, it is worth researching all the available grants and exchange rates, to give them a better idea about how they might manage their money at home and abroad”, he explained.
Completing the top-five most affordable universities are the Bogaziçi Üniversitesi in Istanbul (Turkey), Freie Universitat in Berlin (Germany), and the University of Granada in Spain.