This means that almost 8 out of every 10 dollars spent on tertiary education is subsidised by the government.

UNESCO: World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP)

Workers who are laid off will continue to benefit from free health care and education, heavily subsidised housing and transport and modest rations of free food.

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But the state always guaranteed them jobs, workplace perks, free health care and education, and heavily subsidised housing and transport.

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University education in Canada is heavily subsidised.

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Their food is subsidised through the Mercal mission, and their children's education is free up to university level.

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There are big compensations: housing, oil and basic foods are all hugely subsidised, and the government claims that Libya's free education and medical care are among the best in the world.

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Others, such as James Tooley, a British academic who advises a chain of low-cost for-profit schools in India, say private-sector education in poor countries routinely outperforms the free, taxpayer-subsidised version.

ECONOMIST: Education

But Chile also has one of world's lowest levels of public funding for higher education, some of the longest degrees and no comprehensive system of student grants or subsidised loans.

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Shanghai claims last year to have become the first city in China to provide free education for all migrant children, mostly in state-run schools, with some in subsidised private ones.

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