Previously I have written – How Should University Education be funded
Arguments against Free education
Generally, university education does offer some external benefits to society. Therefore, there is a justification for the government subsidising higher education. There is also a powerful argument that university education should be free to ensure equality of opportunity. However, just because higher education is beneficial to society doesn’t mean we are obliged to offer unlimited funding. Perhaps society would benefit if the government offered more free training so people could become plumbers, electricians. If we spend billions on free university education there is an opportunity cost of higher taxes or less spending elsewhere. Because so many people go to university, it is unfortunately necessary we need to charge at least some students for higher education. However, I really question whether we need 50% of students to go to university. This is main reason why cost of university education is rising and government are having to use more top up fees.
3 comments ↓
I would have to say I am completely behind privatizing school. I live in Canada where it is illegal to privatize school and I pay for it. When in College, I was hardly noticed. The academic advisors would make clerical errors, cost me lots of time and stress and then shrug it off. There is no perfect syste, but I happen to agree with one of economics professors, who shared the belief that it would be best to foster competetion among colleges and unversities by having several in the same area. Each would compete for the students suitcase of money. This would increase the demand for students and voila! the supply of quality professors would increase to keep those students. If I had an issue, I would take my fifty thousand dollars to the dean and issue an ultimatum. Fix it or I’m gone. The same argument applies to everything that government currently controls. Allowing the market to use price signals will always ensure there is never a shortage for any substantial period of time.
@Atreu:
I don’t know where in the world you get your information from, but it’s certainly not Canada. It is NOT, by any stretch of the imagination, illegal to privatize ANY form of schooling in Canada. There are private preschools, elementary schools, high schools, colleges, and universities. While it’s true that the majority are public to some degree, to imply that none are private is completely false.
And even if your assertion were true, the public universities are still competing for students and tuition, especially in the more populated areas.
Atreu’s comment I find quite dispicable, you clearly have no idea how it feels to not be able to afford school. My parents gave me a grand total of nada for my schooling, but I had high ambitions, I applied for and got accepted by Queens university international study center in England. Now I couldn’t afford this, so I got scholarships, bursary’s, grants and osap. I also did a power of attorney before I left. And guess what I’ve been screwed over, at a time when I cannot work and have almost no money I have to do another power of attorney in england, and do it very quick or I don’t get my loans. If this happens I cannot study next year and the almigthy dollar has thrown my dreams of not being a blue collar worker in my face. For the record, the majority of people in my institution in England are quite wealthy, knowing this and my own circumstances, disgusts me on a very profound level. Education should be a basic right, and this includes higher education.
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