Advantages And Disadvantages Of Tuition Fees

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Universities have been established to provide higher quality education to those who want to pursue their dreams and their choice of career, or expand their knowledge. Universities therefore provide positive externalities, or influences, which can benefit everyone in society. Also, education is a merit good that is under-provided as those who consume education do not consider the long term benefits that education provides, such as higher-paid jobs, but rather the short-term benefits possibly because of lack of information or knowledge of what higher education can provide. There are many ways to provide financial resources for universities, such as tuition fees, subsidies, donations and aids, and selling research, to name a few. Fees can be quite …show more content…

The disadvantage of charging fees is that many students may end up in debt because of high prices. Other people may not even be able to afford higher education even though they are capable of learning and going to university. Tuition fees arguably acts as a barrier to those who are born into families unable to afford higher education. This thus makes it an unequal opportunity for those with lower incomes. With higher fees, it will discourage students from going to universities, which means that there is a shortage of labour skills and potential employees for specific jobs, such as surgeons and lawyers. Perhaps some students would move to study in other countries, because it may cost less, and this could lead to lower labour as …show more content…

This leads to the government needing to increase taxes. Here lies the opportunity cost, a sacrifice one makes when they choose one option over the other, because if large amount of money is spent on universities then it leads to an increase in taxes and less money to spend elsewhere. Also, there has been a large increase in the amount of graduates, which might lead to too many people graduating. A study from the Office for National Statistics found that 47% of employed workers who graduated have gotten jobs that does not require any degree (Copping, 2013). So, one could argue that there is no need for more graduates, because what about other jobs that do not need degrees? Would some consider it too beneath them to want to work in that king of job now that they hold a degree? But if many have degrees does it hold as much

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