Should university be free

University fees are extortionate when you look at what you get for your money.

For me, 9k per year of university buys me:

8hrs of lectures/week
3hrs of labs and tutorials/week

None of those contact hours involve any one to one time; instead you just sit in a massive lecture theatre joined by another 250 students. It begs the question, why do people pay these fees? You can hire a person to give you hourly one-to-one tuition for 30 quid. Instead at university, you end up paying significantly more than 30 quid to join a lecture theatre populated by a quarter of a thousand students.

The justification academics give is that university is about independent learning. Me personally, I think it's just an excuse academics use so they can avoid as much teaching responsibilites as they can get away with. I mean, why can't we just do independent learning at the local library rather than pay an institution 9000 a year?

To make matters worse, lots of people enter university under the impressioin that upon graduation they will get a professional job. But this is a lie and no one tells them! Lots of people graduate with 50k of debt and end up working in a low-paid or dead-end job after spending 3 or more years in education.

(edited 4 years ago)

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Vote Llafur Cymru!

I've thought over the years that I would have had a far better education if I had stayed at my sixth form for another couple of years doing different A levels. Far more exposure to great teachers than universities offered.

Do you get anything else from the university? Marked and supported assignments for example?

You raise an interesting point about the cost of private tuition. I came across someone who had been looking to do a degree as a mature student. He went for London external (philosophy I think) and paid for a tutor for hour long sessions and to mark/ give feedback on essays. Said it was a great amount cheaper and more effective than sitting in a class with 30 others.

Reply 3

Smack

Volunteer Team

It also gets you a certificate at the end should you successfully complete the course. A lot of students are probably more interested in obtaining that certificate than the education which goes into it.

Reply 4

DimT

Me too. I am also from an EU country that has no undergraduate fees at all. I would say that a small student contribution like this or a little more with the biggest part of funding coming directly from taxes and other sources, would have been the ideal system, as it serves both equal opportunities but also makes you a responsible individual who dedicates time and money on something important.

The big downside, however, is that politicians can easily manipulate and modify the (student contribution) fees at will, with the UK being the best example of how 1000 became 9000 within a decade.
Thus, I would say that in any less than perfect society NO fees at all is perhaps the best option.

Reply 5

Notoriety

9k is not really a fee. It is potential liability.

So it's not something which is really "paid", nor do people go to uni for the number of contact hours. They go to get a piece of paper. They are the people directly benefitting (and do so voluntarily*), so they should be the people paying up -- not the tax payer generally.

*This point is important, as it kills the riposte of "So the dying cancer patient should pay for his own treatment, not the healthy millionaires ...".

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 6

DimT

I know. I studied my undergraduate degree just when they introduced the 1k fees...

(edited 5 years ago)

Reply 7

MochiMirangue

Just as a lil side note - not all universities are like that. I have around 23 or so contact hours a week with brilliant lecturers and tutorials of groups of 3 or so and it is brilliant. Plus the feedback on our essays or coursework is also really great and detailed. I even got my lab report back with writing all over it and the marker came over to explain all of the comments clearly. So for my university I would say that paying fees is worth it (but yes they should be less than 9K), but if it was your uni which doesn't sound that brilliant then I can see why you would be justified in thinking it should be free...

Reply 8

tesconyc

I think uni is fun and worth it

Reply 9

username3973192

I believe university should be free. However, only for people with a right to live in the UK.

Reply 10

username3973192

Original post by tesconyc

I think uni is fun and worth it

Is the fun worth £9,250 a year?

Reply 11

ajj2000

Original post by MochiMirangue

Isnt that a case of 'not all university courses are like this' rather than 'not all universities are like this'? A lot of STEM and creative arts courses look great value to me - you get a lot of facilties, contact hours and exposure to top people. Many other courses - not so much.

Reply 12

Notoriety

It is reductionist to suppose that what I said isn't true just because you'd like it not to be. Reductionist or fallacious -- take your pick.

Reply 13

That'sGreat

You’re paying for increase smog prospects. If you’re leaving with no job opportunity lined up or available, you’ve gone to a crap uni and done a course that isn’t worth your time, that’s you fault. Pay if it will help you, if it won’t, don’t go. Simple as

Reply 14

meek-boy

Im indian....wanna study in uk....but my family can not afford such a huge amount of tution fees....
So i'll of course say universities should be free....

Yes

So essentially you get:

1) access to large lectures. These are given by subject experts and will be up to date knowledge (which matters in areas like IT and business/ law, not so much in other areas. Could be sold as internet access to watch from anywhere - there would be a cost but I doubt it would be as high as it could be divided over thousands of students.

2) seminars/ labs for 3 hours. Any very expensive equipment? Unless so this could be done far cheaper.

3) Access to a library. This costs money.

4) Access to specialist journals - these are very expensive, but are they of huge value to most students?

5) A hugely expensive structure for support you pay for whether you want/ need it or not.

6) Exams you can only take as part of a university. If a 'name' university passing said exams is the access route for employment.

Is that a reasonable assessment?