The Student Room Group

Should university be free

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Original post by Rabbit20164
When i was in engineering uni [BSEE candidate] I worked in the summers and during vaccy periods as a technician [what are called 'engineers' in the Uk]. IMHO, someone in a professional degree pgm [engineering, medicine, law, architecture, etc should work in their chosen profession if they possibly can. About 1980, "student loans" became the rage on this side of the pond. The result was that tuition for a one semester course went from about $680 to over $3000 for the same course. I was doing my masters at the time, and i can ASSURE YOU that the quality of instruction did NOT improve as a result. My uni [George Washington, Uni], hired the Gallop org to find out what GW had to do to improve the prestige of their degrees. The answer came back "you have to raise your tuition". Doing nothing else, they basically tripled the price of their courses - and it worked - they moved up in the rankings. If anything, they got in more "adjunct faculty" who could not "Speek englis tooo gud!" And they couldn't teach either!!! One winning combination - if you are interested in a law degree, is to do either engineering or medicine as your undergrad degree before law school. A mate of mine's kid did an elect engineering degree [BSEE], followed by a law degree [LLD]. About 10 yrs out of school - he was making about $350,000. You CAN live on that. Cheers.


This might be the case in the states, but in the UK you usually study law at undergrad, followed by a LPC (to become a solicitor) or a pupilage (to become a barrister). Starting salaries for lawyers immediately out of school in the states is around 100k USD, but it's wildly different in the UK where even after four years of legal education you still have two years in firm working as a trainee before you qualify; plus, as we are a lot less litigious we have a different dynamic and legal economy, also competition is significantly higher here (brother is a UK solicitor, girlfriend is a US attorney).

Whilst the average yearly cost of university in the UK is still under a third of what you'd pay in the states, it's still a very high amount and takes 20-30 years to pay off. That being said, it's still the only way to get into some professions. Most advanced engineering roles require a degree as minimum - frequently a masters, other less advanced require vocational college study but study nonetheless and the UK government will only part fund the education (which is why it's cheaper in the UK compared to the USA).

Your fees vs teaching quality observation is a great point; although in reversing it now, one could postulate that teaching salaries are likely to drop if fees are reduced (as they are then essentially state funded salaries), which certainly doesn't attract the best people for the posts.
(edited 7 years ago)
Original post by Sarah1778
I don't think it should be free, but definitely reduced than it is now (it's annoying that that option isn't on the poll)


Just out of curiosity, why do you think they should be less?
Original post by geolowiser
Just out of curiosity, why do you think they should be less?


I just think it's stupid that I had 12 hours of contact time a week in my first year and now am going to have 9 hours of contact time a week in my second year and I'll be paying £9000+ for each of those years when lecturers are just reading off a PowerPoint. They could literally just upload the slides online and I can do everything at home (apart from lab work), I just don't see why I'm paying so much. I don't think it should be free either because uni is kind of like an add-on, it's not a complete necessity, and I don't think there's an issue about rich/poor because you pay it back in the future and people are going to uni because they aspire to have good careers so in an ideal situation they shouldn't be poor in the future.
Whilst state funded university is a heavy burden, a complete lack of funding can lead to so many **** places. The states has over 2600 universities/colleges with 39 in the top 100, whereas the UK as 133 but 16 in the top 100; a lot of this is due to funding and the UK government pays a lot more per year for you than you pay for yourself even at 9k a year.
Original post by Sarah1778
I just think it's stupid that I had 12 hours of contact time a week in my first year and now am going to have 9 hours of contact time a week in my second year and I'll be paying £9000+ for each of those years when lecturers are just reading off a PowerPoint. They could literally just upload the slides online and I can do everything at home (apart from lab work), I just don't see why I'm paying so much. I don't think it should be free either because uni is kind of like an add-on, it's not a complete necessity, and I don't think there's an issue about rich/poor because you pay it back in the future and people are going to uni because they aspire to have good careers so in an ideal situation they shouldn't be poor in the future.


I do agree that the contact time is super low there. What course are you studying? Interestingly a large percentage of lower income 17/18 year olds who chose not to go to uni claim that they chose not to because they thought it wasn't worth the money, regardless of future outcomes as their perception and value of money can be different to someone who doesn't have to worry about food bills if they buy an ice-cream. Seems that perception plays a huge part in it. Someone from the states would think they are getting half price uni and a fantastically cheap deal if they were to be paying 20k USD a year whilst we balk at under half that.

(not that I agree with the amount, I just mean it's all relative and very subjective)
Original post by geolowiser
I do agree that the contact time is super low there. What course are you studying? Interestingly a large percentage of lower income 17/18 year olds who chose not to go to uni claim that they chose not to because they thought it wasn't worth the money, regardless of future outcomes as their perception and value of money can be different to someone who doesn't have to worry about food bills if they buy an ice-cream. Seems that perception plays a huge part in it. Someone from the states would think they are getting half price uni and a fantastically cheap deal if they were to be paying 20k USD a year whilst we balk at under half that.

(not that I agree with the amount, I just mean it's all relative and very subjective)


I'm studying Biomedicine - you'd expect more contact time for something like that. I guess background and upbringing probably does play a part in how worthwhile people see university, and perception is a very important thing. In this day and age it's almost seen as a necessity though, since there's so much competition for careers. Especially since having a degree has better financial stability in the long run a lot of the time.
Reply 126
lets not speculate, but instead use freely available data.
The most innovative countries in the world, (the Scandinavian states) have free tertiary education.
The country with the highest prison population (USA) has the most expensive tertiary education.
QED
It all depends on what you think we are here for, to compete to polarise wealth or to cooperate for a universal improvement.
If you want a nation of a minority uber rich elite and a criminal underclass then make the tools for improvement expensive and unobtainable. If you want a free thinking nation of innovators then educate the hell out of everyone.
Remember you as a nation can either pay for prisons or fund free education it's a political decision that your politicians make. Ask yourself why they make the decisions they make.
(edited 7 years ago)
Free or cheaper. Somehow, other countries manage to do it, but the UK is behind.
It should be free or much cheaper or for what they charge now they should provide all we will need stationary, travel expenses, resources etc especially for art and design courses where you have to buy everything yourself which is 1k+ on top of tuition fees and maintenance

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Original post by samzy21
It should be free or much cheaper or for what they charge now they should provide all we will need stationary, travel expenses, resources etc especially for art and design courses where you have to buy everything yourself which is 1k+ on top of tuition fees and maintenance

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You must remember that the existing fees do not cover the running costs of a university, the government still heavily subsidises HE institutions. Also, especially for some arts courses, why should the public fund your fine art degree supplies? The majority of grads in the arts do not go on to work directly in the arts so why should the tax-payer pay for your travel expenses to and from uni, for your pens and pencils? You must consider the impact that free study will have, yes other countries have done it, more more countries don't and that's because it's very expensive.

It seems that a lot of people have forgotten that whilst primary and secondary education is a basic human right in the UK, higher education is a priviledge and as such must be paid for just like any other training course you take 18+.
People should be allowed access to Higher Education based on the content of their mind, not their wallet.
Original post by niteninja1
Should university be free


Free in terms of being free of student fee? if there is a concept to finance universities alternatively, I have nothing against it. No students should be stopped to study by study fee. Another idea would be to reduce the fees.
How will you pay for it?

University numbers have exploded over the last 20 years along with immigration and our rising population, all you need to do is sit through a 10month Access course and you can get into Uni these days.

It's pretty much why degrees are barely worth anything compared to 30 years ago.
Original post by #ChaosKass
Absolutely not - higher education is not a human right. You want it, you pay for it.

In fact I'd go as far as to say that the current fees are not enough, though the proposed tiered system looks somewhat promising. Ideally the student loan scheme would be scrapped entirely and fees would have to be paid upfront - teach all those workshy 18 year olds that you can't have everything handed to you on a plate.


I'm presuming that this is a bitter adult who didn't get to attend university.
I think fees should be cheaper but think there should be fewer uni places, tie number of places to employability.

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Original post by remiremi
University numbers have exploded over the last 20 years along with immigration and our rising population, all you need to do is sit through a 10month Access course and you can get into Uni these days.

It's pretty much why degrees are barely worth anything compared to 30 years ago.



Exactly - you see all these sheep celebrating their BScs without realising that it is of little value in today's world. A BSc is nothing to be proud of - anyone can get one.
Original post by #ChaosKass
Exactly - you see all these sheep celebrating their BScs without realising that it is of little value in today's world. A BSc is nothing to be proud of - anyone can get one.


In my honest opinion, people who have a BSc degree got just the basics of a study at the best. A BSc is just the lowest stage of academics. Even an MSc is just too little in some study paths, yeah there are even unemployled people with a doctorate.
Original post by 1secondsofvamps
Not free but I personally think it should be slightly cheaper


And a very very low interest rate.
Original post by AB710344
And a very very low interest rate.


Why it go couple £100,000 a year the repayments won’t change
I should be more expensive, so many people going into useless fields, having it more expensive would mean more people choosing to go to stem and well paying fields

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