S.U.

Denmark has the most generous education system in the world. Not only is tuition free up to and including university and other higher education courses, but after-school students receive a Government grant ("S.U.") towards living expenses, currently kr.5,800 (a bit over £600) a month for those living on their own. Outside of Copenhagen that's probably enough to live on. Get a part-time job, and a student should not have financial worries.

However, generous also means expensive. And in these difficult times, the Government has decided to cut back on the system. The main elements are a reduction in the inflation rate used to uprate S.U. payments; reduced S.U. for some students who live at home with their parents, who will now have their payments means-tested; and a 5-year limit for receiving S.U. (the current limit is six years, even though a Masters course generally takes only five years). Together these measures should save about kr.2 billion a year by 2020.

This is trimming rather than radical reform; nobody is suggesting charging tuition fees, for example. Yet it is still likely to get the Government into trouble, since the coalition programme thrashed out in the aftermath of the last general election promised not to cut S.U. Less than eighteen months later, Ministers are doing just that.

So what, you might say? Changed times require a change of tack. Yet Government programmes carry weight in Denmark, and voters - not just students - are likely to view the reform as a broken promise. Yet another problem for a Prime Minister already struggling with a weak economy, high unemployment and low poll ratings.

Walter Blotscher