The Student Room Group

Should university be free?

Please be 100% honest. Yes I am guessing we would all love it to be free, but would like to hear people's opinions on this subject! :biggrin:

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Where would the funding come from and why should other people pay for your education? You've already have some 13 years of free education.
Original post by jjh87
Please be 100% honest. Yes I am guessing we would all love it to be free, but would like to hear people's opinions on this subject! :biggrin:


Well no. Because who would pay the astronomical salaries of all the bosses of universities currently in the latest news?

On the other hand, I would like it to be free and then I could get funding for the Masters I want to do.
why can't we have community yoonies ?
I dont think it should be free as uni is very expensive to fund. But i do think the fees are too high i think it should be £3,000.
Reply 5
Interesting responses so far! From a selfish point of view I think it would ideally be free as it is in Scandinavian countries. However I think it is totally unrealistic.

If I am brutally honest, my personal opinion is that it is someones choice to go to university, as there are alternatives that people can do in terms of training. Therefore I think we should be charged accordingly. The fees should be a bit lower (no more than £5k?) with specialised degrees where we have a clear shortage in our workforce (teaching, medicine and medicine related stuff).

I also saw an article that stated that 66% of funding for university research came from central government (in 2015). If tuition was free then it would be even more funding to unis from government.

On a side point I have also had issues with academic journals recently and how they can be a bit 'waffley'. If I was a non student I would not want my taxes paying for some of the jargon that is in academic research.
Reply 6
You don’t get what you pay for. University shouldn’t even be a thing
Everything should be free for everyone.
I think uni should be free for students studying subjects like science, economics , technology , maths , medicine as these are very important subjects that move forward our economy. Subjects like history are great but wont be very beneficial to our society so they should pay £3000. Also if you disagree remember that people without children would be partly paying for your uni education and its not fair for them to have to pay for someones interest that wont ever affect them or the future.
A lot of German unis are free and even the ones you pay for are only a few hundred euroes a semester. In an ideal world, yes all education at every level would be free.
No. Our collective aspiration seems to be to have as many people as possible at university and that’s not sustainable to make it free.

If it became free (again) I strongly suspect that the perceived value and sense of personal responsibility would fall and sense of entitlement would rise.

It’s not too difficult to see huge numbers of people who are wholly unsuited to university going simply because it’s free, achieving nothing except maybe a poorly classed degree with little positive experience other than a lot of bevving to go with it- and then turning out in the jobs market wondering why yet another 3rd class in Business Information Technology from Westminster or Coventry isnt getting them a job at a merchant bank.

Drop out rates would be phenomenal. People would feel no responsibility to stay in something they hadn’t paid for.

You can see this yourselves at university now. If you have a free event on Facebook like a house party or free lecture- pretty much everyone will sign up, but feel absolutely no obligation to turn up. They’ll also probably flake at the drop of a hat and feel no need to even say so. If you make the event paid - sure much fewer people will turn up, but you can be sure almost everyone will show up.
Reply 11
No it should not be free. Who tends to go to University mostly? Answer is wealthy students from affluent backgrounds - now I admit it's a bit of a generalisation and while many poorer students do go to Uni.. most tend to go for apprenticeships, etc. So in this circumstance why should poorer people who tend not to go to University subsidise some privileged kid going to Oxford who would then become a banker? Why should they pay more in tax so someone else can go to Uni? One should pay for their own higher education knowing that it will improve their employability chances in the future. Fundamentally it is an investment and it is up to you to decide whether it is worth that investment. you could choose an apprenticeship or an internship instead and that could be more valuable. You hold all the power in what choices you make.

That being said I do think some degrees should have grant money attached. If you are an exceptional student from a poor background who really should be going to Uni then I think we should be supporting that. But note exceptional student. I think also we should support STEM subjects as they have a very consistent employability rate and will ultimately end in net profit for the tax payer.

Ultimately it is my view. I come from a privileged background so feel that I myself should pay for my education not be subsidised by others; many of whom will not have been.
Reply 12
A lot of other arguments about university being free is the quality of degree and teaching. I study Town Planning and have a 92% according to national studies of getting a job with this degree. However I find the teaching hours (about 7 hours per week) dreadful and when there is teaching it is awful. I saw another post on a different thread which I can relate to about my lectures just being a load of powerpoints. So I feel like it is a waste of my money.
Yes it should be free, but far fewer people should attend and there should be fewer universities.

Apprenticeships should be a more desirable option, with far more apprenticeships than university places and competitive apprenticeship schemes which have more cachet than a degree.
Original post by toniator23
I think uni should be free for students studying subjects like science, economics , technology , maths , medicine as these are very important subjects that move forward our economy. Subjects like history are great but wont be very beneficial to our society so they should pay £3000. Also if you disagree remember that people without children would be partly paying for your uni education and its not fair for them to have to pay for someones interest that wont ever affect them or the future.


I'm afraid the arts and creative industries are very important for our economy.
k but like childcare doesnt need to be taught at uni and anyone that wants to do it should hav to pay
Reply 16
For Scottish students we get so much more free so I'm fine with it.
The STEMM thing is nonsense.

If you subsidise STEMM all you are going to do is create a generation of demotivated and mediocre science teachers. You will get people going to university and taking Maths or Polymer Science or something not because they are interested in it or because they’re good at it - but because it’s cheap.

It’s a Black Friday mentality. People snapping things up not because they want or need them - but simply because it’s cheap or has huge discounts
It should not be free. I'm not sure whether the price should be lowered or not though.

If university was free, dropout rates would be so damn high and people wouldn't care about attending lessons as much as they didn't have to pay for it. University s something we have to work for, and if we didn't have to work that hard, the ideals of it go. Plus I wouldn't want to fund someone who will dropout after 1 year and barely attended classes.
Original post by toniator23
k but like childcare doesnt need to be taught at uni and anyone that wants to do it should hav to pay

Why?

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