I am incredibly familiar and quite jealous of the advantage imposed by Euro government's when it comes to schooling but that situation does not relate well to the issues faced by student's in North America. (of attention is the fact that your country and many other European nations demand national service in order to compensate for your demands of social equity. Additionally, European social standards impose limits on wages, hours of employment and sundry other details that are not reflected by our Laissez-faire, free market based system). eg: A doctor in Finland is probably not allowed to refuse patients, yet that is the norm across Canada (if you can even find one).
Essentially, our system is dictated by student demands, not by nationally/ provincially imposed enrolment. Our government's let personal choice prevail over common sense decisions, hence the result that we have PHD's working for minimum wages in fields that are totally unrelated to their studies. By continuing an ongoing direct government subsidy, there is little chance for the reform's needed to make the system both affordable to the taxpayer and valuable to the student body as well as the economy at large. (how is this fair to future generations? let alone honest to ourselves?)
As a spin off result, employer expectations are far exceeding the actual demands of various positions. (I don't need a degree to answer phones but that has become the norm here in vancouver, as well as across Canada). Another unfortunate result from this governmental position is that core areas of employment demand cannot be accomodated by the current curriculum.
In terms of Canada, core employment needs reside in Healthcare, Engineering, and Resource extraction, yet the student bodies are demanding to be educated in frivolous subjects like poetry and classic studies that do not return benefit to the economy, distract precious teachers from vital areas of education, and create an imbalanced situation whereby the rich can truly take advantage by using their wealth to monopolize the limited classes that are both lucrative and limited in availability.
So what does our government end up doing? they recruit from foreign nations and encourage their establishment in Canada as either part of the social elite or as an absolute social underclass. What is truly needed in Canada is a national dialogue with a mindset towards a permanent remedy that values the taxpayer, either as a janitor or as an engineer.
The status quo is corrupt, it is incumbent upon our generation to make the necessary and relevant change. Otherwise we are dooming ourselves to failure...