Not only the level of support students receive varies from country to country, but also the way their respective support package is composed. The costs of students are distributed across public and private entities, and may come along in cash as well as indirect subsidies. This presentation is a cross-country comparison of cost-sharing approaches in six European countries. It is subdivided into two parts: the first part compares cost-sharing approaches at the macro-level, i.e. the international scale. The second part contains a micro-level analysis, that is to say it compares support levels for student groups from different socio-economic backgrounds.