Is education in Europe really this cheap?
Yes European higher education can be fairly cheap for the students, especially in those countries where universities are mainly public, and hence are largely funded by their respective governments. This means that they do not need to charge high fees to their students to cover for costs. Nevertheless their campuses offer all the facilities their students need, in terms of libraries, food canteens, lecture rooms, laboratories, etc..

Let's take France as an example. The French Ministry of Education defines, for each academic year, the fees to be applied by all public universities across the country. Here are the fees for 2015 (in French). Just to quote a few numbers (all fees are for one academic year):


Bachelor's: 184€ | 122€ (reduced fee for low-income students)
Master's: 256€ | 168€ (reduced fee for low-income students)
5-year Engineering Diploma: 610€
PhD: 391€ | 260€ (reduced fee for low-income students)