Norway’s parliament will adopt a new law that will make it possible to collect tuition fees from international students in Norway.

The government had previously passed a proposal as part of its national budget for 2023 that will see students from outside the EEA, and Switzerland charged for studying in Norway.

All parliamentary parties except the Red Party, the Green Party and the Liberal Party are in favour of the amendment to the Education Act.

The Ministry of Education says that the new act will free up to 2,600 study places in Norway and that universities and colleges will collect around 300 million in tuition fees annually. The ministry also predicts that 70 percent of international students in Norway today would not have studied in the country if there were fees.

The Socialist Left Party has said it will table amendments to the proposed law but says they are unlikely to get a majority. One would allow study places to decide whether they wish to implement fees, and the other would allow a larger group of foreign students to be exempt from tuition fees.

When it formed, the current government pledged not to introduce tuition fees for foreign students, and the party the government typically negotiates with to secure a majority in parliament for its budgets, the Socialist Left Party, also said numerous times it was opposed to the proposal. Despite this, the measure was put forward by the three parties as part of the national budget.

“The free principle is hereby buried; it is a day of mourning for students and for equal opportunities! When it really mattered, neither the Socialist Left Party, the Labor Party, nor the Center Party was willing to stand up for free higher education,” Maika Marie Godal Dam, head of the Norwegian Student Organisation, told Norwegian newswire NTB.

The previous Solberg government tried to implement a similar proposal in 2014 but had to withdraw the proposed legislation.