More than 30,000 foreigners getting SU

The number of international students receiving the state-allocated studying allowance SU increased by 50 percent from 20,800 in 2011 to 30,221 last year.

The Danish financial support for students can amount to 5,903 kroner a month – the highest in the world and almost double the sums handed out in Norway and Sweden.  

"The support is very generous, but I haven't heard anyone trying to lure people here on SU," Niels Egelund, the chairman of the Danish Business Academies, told Metroexpress.

More for foreigners, less for Danes
In February 2013, the EU ruled that every non-Danish student who works a minimum of 10 hours per week in Denmark can receive a full SU.

Since then, the number of foreign students – particularly from Bulgaria, Lithuania and Romania – have increased. 

Back in 2011, just 341 EU citizens fulfilled the necessary criteria to get a full SU. Two years later, the number increased 13-fold as some 4,647 international students received the grant.

Some 211 didn't even study in Denmark, although presumably it must have been somewhere close (like Sweden) in order to work the necessary ten hours.

"We're really concerned that if we exceed the 200 million budget for foreign student allowances, we'll have to cut down on the support we give Danes," Jens Henrik Dahl, a spokesperson for Dansk Folkeparti, told Berlingske.

Keeping them in the country
Sofie Carsten Nielsen, the minister for education and research, believes attracting international students to Denmark benefits the country even if they receive the SU. 

"The crucial thing, of course, is to motivate them to stay and to work in Denmark afterwards," Nielsen told Metroexpress.

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