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Who should bear the cost of public tertiary education?
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The sustainability of affordable education

Subsidizing education would help alleviate economic barriers without exhausting government funds.
Economics Education Tertiary Education
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The Argument

Running public tertiary institutions is expensive. Subsidizing these institutions allows citizens to receive an affordable education. While it may not be as equitable as free tertiary education due to socio-economic disparities, there are ways to work around this such as need-based financial aid programs. Another large aspect of tertiary education is learning from experienced, intelligent, successful individuals through seminars and other events. Splitting the cost of tertiary education between the government and the student results in a larger budget, which allows for more of these interactive learning experiences to be offered. Further, public U.S. tertiary education institutions spend the majority of their budget on instruction and auxiliary expenses.[1] Auxiliary expenses help these institutions to generate alternative revenue streams to tuition. Money from these revenue streams can be reinvested back into the institution and provide students with cutting edge technology and resources at a low cost. Affordable tuition acts as a user fee and provides the institution with the necessary capital to keep resources up to date and relevant.

Counter arguments

Though affordable education is sustainable, socio-economic factors will put lower-income students at a disadvantage. Need-based financial aid programs can also lack substantial funding or take the form of student loans, which is less than ideal.

Premises

[P1] The government will subsidize public tertiary institutions to the point that tuition is affordable.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Some governments may not have the necessary capital to fund public tertiary education to this extent.

References

  1. https://www.vox.com/2014/9/14/6144919/where-your-tuition-money-goes-in-two-charts
This page was last edited on Monday, 26 Oct 2020 at 14:34 UTC

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