Issue 126. Governments should offer college and university education free of charge to all students.

126. Governments should offer college and university education free of charge to all students.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the statement and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, you should consider ways in which the statement might or might not hold true and explain how these considerations shape your position.

Although government-backed college education seems like a good idea, such free education will actually do a disservice to students.

First of all, college and university education for everyone will devalue higher education. In countries where higher education is a privilege, candidates who graduated from universities will be more valued in the job market over high school graduates. However, with everyone attending university for free, people entering the job market will have to compete by going on to graduate school. Since graduate school is unlikely to be free, students will have to end up paying money for a higher degree of education to be a strong candidate during job search.  

Secondly, there are financial factors to consider. How will the schools be run? Big private institutions such as Harvard and Brown are almost like giant corporations. They need to be funded. Schools source a chunk of their operation costs from students’ tuitions. The overhead consists of pay for faculty and running school buildings. Although schools do receive huge endowments from alumni and parents, this will not be enough to cover all costs. Take the faculty’s pay for example. Relying on a limited amount of donations, schools will be likely to stint on paying their professors. This will discourage professors from being motivated to teach, and will also bereave them of research funding to further their field of study. Learning from such professors will not be beneficial for the students. Such financial concerns support the claim that free college education will be counterproductive.

Government funding has to be sourced from somewhere. This will be on the backs of taxpayers. Although students will take advantage of free education until they are around 25, once they start paying taxes, their once-believed “free” education will be an onerous burden. As my first example claimed, fresh graduates will have a more difficult time competing against each other for jobs. Greater supply (of candidates) in the job market, will lead to a reduced salary. Students will have to be content with low paying jobs because of the heightened competition. The burden of their ‘free’ education is exacerbated. These two financial factors do not render free education a boon for students at all.

Free university education will open up opportunities for many. Students will not be penalized for their family background. Academically successful students will not have to forgo a place at a better, and more expensive, institution because of their financial situation. These are some of the benefits. However, free university education on a national level will raise the expectations. The standards will now be university education. This will inflate higher education and recede to the problem mentioned above regarding heightened competition in the job market.

In sum, free university education is a specious offer that will be a disservice to students in reality.