The Free University of Berlin, also known as Freie Universität Berlin in Germany, is among the many global universities offering free tuition courses to local and international students, including Kenyans, under a studentship programme.
Under the studentship programme, a student can study while working within the same university. This program is best practised in Germany, the US, Canada, and the United Kingdom too.
It is flexible enough to allow students to fulfil work requirements and get tax-free salary payments during the summer holidays.
“It’s important for senior students to take part in productive learning economies even before their graduation,” immigration advisory platform, Yaxis says on its website.
In such a programme, the prospective student must first be accepted and enrolled in the university before applying for the studentship.
Free tuition studentship programme is mostly used by post-graduate students as a stepping stone to bigger opportunities in the countries of study.
In the United Kingdom, foreign PhD students are normally given a chance to conduct final research projects and work in the country before publishing final papers.
The UK government, on 1 July 2021, confirmed that international students, Kenyans included, are allowed to apply to live and work in the UK for up to two years after graduating with the new graduate visa.
“With the graduate visa students who graduated in summer 2021 and onwards will be able to remain in the country to work for up to 2 years. This new rule applies to both bachelor’s and master’s degrees, regardless of your area of study,” the UK Ministry of Foreign Relations announced.
In this kind of arrangement, a student does not need to be sponsored by an employer to be eligible for the Visa.
“You just need to have successfully completed your degree at a higher education provider with a track record of compliance - like our university partners,” the UK Ministry of Foreign Relations added.
Other universities that offer free tuition studentships include the Technical University of Munich, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, the University of Oslo, and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), among many others.
