By Thomas Dowling EUROPE OR BUST?


A few hundred years ago it was common place for young aristocrats to complete their classical education with a 'Grand Tour' of Europe.


Literary luminaries such as Lord Byron made this serpentine journey from England's ringing cathedrals to the sound of the hezzan in Constantinople, taking in the 'glory that was Greece and the grandeur that was Rome'—to quote Poe—along the way.


But today, we live in an age where new money careens through cyber veins that wrap and entangle the earth like


creepers, while old wealth can collapse under the auspices—and risks—of globalization and it's interconnected world.


A jaunt around the environs of European citadels is no longer the preserve of the rich and well to do. Nor does it represent the culmination of the post-Recession students of tomorrow, but it is now, potentially, the start of their academic journey; and beyond into the world of employment.


I first graduated in 2006 when tuition fees were in the thousand- pound range. A year later, as I embarked upon my Masters degree, they inflated to £3,000. Since 2010 and the establishment


of the Coalition government, universities have been authorized to demand donatives of up to £9,000. The 'sky may well be the limit' for gifted graduates, but it also seems that hikes in fees are without ceilings; indeed, not long after the introduction and rapid acquisition of these new figures by universities did Oxbridge argue for greater autonomy in fixing their own fees to remain competitive with their American counterparts.


Given these new fiscal realities for prospective students and their families at a time when the UK economy is still struggling to re-energize itself, the Continent holds great allure, offering a myriad of opportunities and most


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