I am looking for general opinions on university tuition and government subsidies.
This is a very hotly debated issue in Canada where the government kicks in about 2/3 of the cost for tuition. Typical costs range from $2500 to $5000 per year for undergraduate degrees (that’s about $1675 to $3350 US) but is steadily rising at about 5-15% per year.
If you are not from Canada, how much does the government subsidize your university tuition? Do you feel it should be more or less?
For countries that have free university, have you noticed any downsides to it like restricted enrolment, military service, or a division between very good schools and very poor schools?
Also, does your country allow for both private and public universities?
My country doesn’t subsidize my university tuition one whit–I go to a private school, and I don’t qualify for need-based scholarships because the FAFSA sucks. If one goes to an in-state private school the tuition is subsidized via taxes.
Whilst I’m not aware of any really common free universities, I know that the quality of public schools varies by where you live. For instance, if I lived in Maryland, I could’ve gone to St. Mary’s College of Maryland, which is a public liberal arts school, for only a couple thousand a year (plus books, room and board, etc). Ditto that if I’d lived in Florida–I could’ve gone to New School of the Unviersity of South Florida, also a public, small liberal arts college, for a couple thou. I live in Illinois, though…and, therefore, the only public schools that were available to me were larger universities, which I didn’t want.
Now, mind you, I could stilL ATTEND these out-of-state schools. It just costs more. And, sometimes–like with University of California–Berkley, it’s harder to get in if you’re out of state.
I live and go to a public university in California. I come from a very very poor background and government provided need-based grants and scholarships pretty much cover tuition. I also get subsidized loans that (barely) cover living expenses.
ditto with even seven. My family is only a few thousand above poverty line. I attend school for free with grants and 3 grand in loans a year for living.
It used to be that state appropriations made up about 2/3 of U.S. public universities’ General Funds (which is how they pay for things like teaching and instructional-related costs). It has been dropping, and at many places it’s half. At my university, it’s 1/3. Hence the current stateside debate about how public universities are getting"privatized."
Of course, you’re asking about the cost of your own personal tuition, not the overall budget. It depends on how one calculates per-student instructional costs, something that isn’t widely agreed upon. Even though most students at a university pay fairly similar tuition, some programs are more expensive for the university to provide than others. A science student who is utilising labs and equipment, and being taught by faculty who are more expensive to hire and retain, the proportion of their total educational costs “paid for” by the government is going to be lower than an English major. But then, most likely, thst students’ own out-of-pocket (tuition) cost also makes up a lower proportion of the cost.
Generally, our state calculates an amount they will provide per fiscal-year-equated student, without regard to whether that fictional student is in engineering (more expensive) or an upperclassman (also more expensive). I suppose you could go about it that way, and compare that funding to the tuition charged, but you still wouldn’t be measuring how much the government is paying towards the total, actual cost of your education.
I’m from the US, and when I went to U of Toronto back in 1995, the in-country tuition was about $2,500 Cdn, and out-of-country was about $13,000 Cdn. There were “Differential Fee Waiver Scholarships” that allowed foreign students to attend at the Canadian rate, and thankfully I got one. I was told at the time that it was very difficult to get a government subsidy otherwise if you were a foreign student, even if you were from a disadvantaged background.
I don’t know if the situation has changed much in the eight years since, but I frankly doubt it.
There are some (very few) colleges in the US that are free - like Berea College. That’s rare in the states though.
School can be subsidized by the government, but you have to qualify based on income. You can also qualify for scholarships based on academic performance, athletics, religious affiliation…just about anything.
But if you don’t qualify for those, then you have to come up with the funds yourself. At state schools, there’s in-state tuition and out of state tuition. In-state is usually much less than out of state.
And some states have some kind of grantlike program. In Louisiana, it was called TOPS and if you did X well in high school and took these certain classes, they’d pay your state school tuition or give that chunk of it to a private school you were going to. There were performance standards and stuff. But it may have changed, I went a few years ago.
Emacknight, I wonder if this really is, as you say, a “hotly debated issue here in Canada.” I don’t hear very much about it at all out in my everyday working world, although perhaps the topic is more prevalent on campus than it is elsewhere.
Rather than look at today’s costs though, you may find it an interesting exercise to ask how high tuition costs rose in the past. If I recall correctly, the difference between what I paid for my first year at the University of Toronto and what I paid for my fourth year there was about 50%, give or take a few percentage points. In other words, my tuition rose by about 10-15% or so per year. (I’m willing to admit these figures are not necessarily exact; I’m going on memory here and this was twenty-some years ago.)
Of course, tuition was less in those days but so were salaries and wages. Another interesting exercise would be to see how many hours of work it takes you to reach the earnings necessary to meet your tuition, and compare that to what it was in my day.
To answer your question, if you were to raise my taxes to pay for your education, I wouldn’t be happy. I already bought and paid for one education–mine–and I wouldn’t want to have to do it for someone I don’t know nearly as well.
Not looking for a debate here, emacknight, just trying to provide a little perspective and answer your question as honestly as I can.
The state of Florida has “Bright Futures” which pays for 50%-100% of tuition costs of in-state schools, depending which program you qualify for. It’s funded by the state lottery. Some states have similar programs, I’ve heard. Bright futures is in addition to the already subsidized state tuition, so its affordable. I pay about $350 in tuition per semester, having the 75% scholarship.
Honestly, I would rather pay higher taxes so I could recieve free tuition. Hell, I’d pay higher taxes when I’m older so students can go for free.
The one problem I see right now with the system is the fact that the Tories refuse to inject money into the system to reduce tuition rates. Additionally, the fact that OSAP increases are to tied to the inflation rate is placing undue stress on students (like me). Then again, administrators (read: Bonnie Patterson @ Trent University) that hope to attract students from higher social classes don’t help either.