Should Higher Education be Free for Everyone?

Introduction

By the end off this essay I will be explain how the system work I will be talking about how education can effect people i will also carry out a research on the background history of how the higher education system and its funding in UK over past years and I will analyse some off the point which I have researched over the internet and analysed .I will show the advantages and disadvantages if higher education should be free

Higher Education

University is an important right of passage – an opportunity to establish independence, to study on areas of interest and hopefully to do so in, stimulating environment meeting new people, and considering new ideas and .I think it is important that everyone should attend this stage

Higher education is provided for free in by most off the countries, or maybe at a a considerate price , but not in the UK, The UK has presumably more money at the institutions’ disposal. However, it also means that higher education may be not that unaffordable to many people at a lower circumstances.

Scholarships and loans

As we how that there is scholarships and loans available now but scholarships are obviously not going to be available to everyone and the loans are the loan is a big debt after graduating so as you can see the student don’t have a chance in either however to soclize the higher education in the U.K we will need a big overhaul system that will handled with care.

The Government has said half of young people are getting into higher education is failing. Far from rising by around 4 per cent a year. maybe this is why higher education is not free the government cant afford to invest money on student education and student are failing .

Well we should consider education to be an investment.  Statistics suggest that, on average, these with a higher education earn higher incomes. 

THE Background

When the New Labour took power in 1997, students had means-tested maintenance grants and no fees. After a year they took off the grant was gone and a means-tested fee regime of up to £1,000 a year after 2004 the higher education pushed it up to £3,000 and this will increase very academic year.

As you see that huge increase from 1997 to 2009 the normal fees was 1,000 than was increased to £3250

The means testing will allow poor people and people with low income to go university .Those how are from low income families should still be able to attend university however the middle classes benefits the most from university education

At the moment there has been a very high drop out rate from university and the reason is because students have to drop out because they can’t afford the fee

Funding

Must universities in Britain are state financed, with only one private university “University of Buckingham” where the government does not support the tuition fees.

Undergraduate and posgradute

Undergraduate students and the students from EU countries have to pay university fees up to a maximum of £3,225 09/10.

Loans are available to students depending on there income assist. This may only be used for tuition fee costs. However in Scotland it different they have their fees paid by the students awards agency for Scotland rather than student Finance.. However postgraduate students are responsible for all there fees but however postgraduate have a variety of scholarship and assistantship schemes they might chooses from that may provide support e.g Economic and social research council and many more .The main sources of funding for postgraduate students are through research councils

Advantages of making Higher Education Free

Here are some off the advantages points

Higher Education leads to situations this is when students graduating end up having extremely high debt on them this was lead to the student loan . Also if higher education was free student will take extra courses which is more effectively

It will decrease the students from drop out ,and push up the passing rate

This will than boost the economy with the amount off student graduating from there universities with a degree

There will be equal opportunity to everyone to attend higher education this means the poor people and the low-income families will have the right to apply .As you can see that the middle class people are using this opportunity using the money and leaving the poor and low incomes missing the opportunity

Disadvantages of making Higher Education Free

There will be less jobs available for everyone the reason because the people who didn’t attend university was a high number and by making the higher education free it will increases the graduates and will than decreases the amount of jobs available

The disadvantage about free higher education is that the government will be paying it but however the stistics shows that half off the higher education student fail there course every year this will than show an down decrease in the economic structure

Supply and demand

The Supply and demand is an economic of price in a market. It explains that in a market, price will function to equal the quantity demanded by consumers, and the quantity supplied by producers, resulting in economic equilibrium of price and quantity.

The demand schedule, shows a graphically as the demand curves , represents the amount of goods that buyers who wants to purchase at different prices. The price of goods remain the same however Following the law demand the demand curve is almost always represented as downward line this means that if the price decreases the consumers will buy more of the good.

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This means that if higher education was to be free the demand on the education will increase .The reason because the people who didn’t mange to go for reasons like the fees for the courses they will have an opportunity to apply however there will be a very high demand as because the students use to pay for it now it free. As you can see on the graph

Excess Supply 

If the price is set too high, excess supply will be created within the economy and there will be allocative inefficiency. , but those consuming the goods will find the product less attractive and purchase less because the price is too high

This is how it looks like when higher education is not free ,the fees are too high and student will not be able to attend just how it shown on the graph

Shifts

A shift in a demand or supply curve occurs when a good’s quantity demanded or supplied changes even though price remains the same. For example if the fees for the university was FREE and the quantity of off student applying shows the demanded

However this shows that if higher education was free there will be an increase in demand

Conclusion

In conclusion I have identified how higher education should be free to students managed to find out what the student thought about free education I also showed what the advantages was for the free education and the disadvantages I managed to get some ideas however I also used the supply and demand and excess supply I managed to compare them and analysed them .I researched the background of the higher education and got some important information which I also analysed .

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=403698&c=2

http://ingrimayne.com/econ/Introduction/ScarcityNChoice.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/mar/04/highereducation.tuitionfees

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universities_in_the_United_Kingdom

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/2337183.stm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_and_demand

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universities_in_the_United_Kingdom

http://www.economicshelp.org/2007/10/why-top-up-fees-are-good-idea.html