This report provides information on the amounts and types of financial assistance available to students both within the member states of the European Community and across its frontiers. The first part of the report summarizes the main systems of financial assistance for students in higher education in the European Community, looking at several factors: tuition fees; types of financial assistance available; means testing of awards; the academic criteria applied; whether the amount of assistance is variable, and if so, what the criteria are; other social benefits received by students; portability; and eligibility. A table and a chart summarize this information for the countries covered: Belgium (listing the French and the Flemish communities separately), Denmark, Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, and the United Kingdom. The remainder of the report provides information for each of the factors for the countries noted above. (CH)