Tuition fees, whether in the primary, secondary, or tertiary levels, seem to always be increasing every year. What does this mean? How can universities and schools explain the constant increase every year? Are we to be always controlled by these institutions, and be at their mercy in our quest for higher education and learning?
Since 1960, the tuition rates in the United States has increased from 6 to 9% on the average. This is twice the general inflation rate of the country! It also means that college tuition will be twice as expensive every 9 years. If you are paying tuition now, then by the time you have children, and they are about to enter college, you have to be practically a millionaire to be able to afford to pay for their tuition fees. It’s either that, of make sure your child is eligible for scholarship or a student loan.
If you study the history of college tuition, you will see that the inflation rate of college tuition has nothing to do with the general inflation percentage of the country. It has been that way forever. Parents just dream of college for their children, and will find a way to raise the money for college from the time the child was born. This means that universities and colleges can sit on their laurels and wait for the applicants to start mailing in their forms…or can they?
Even if parents dream of college for their children, the economic downturn has led them to seek innovative ways to get their children into college. For some, it may be a grant or scholarship, others seek employment in universities to ease the financial burden on the fees, since in most universities, children of employees get concessions as far as tuition fees are concerned. Still others settle for a less expensive college – like a community college for the first two years before transferring to the college of their choice.
In other countries, you see students applying at universities far from their country because there are better opportunities and a chance to get a scholarship. There are so many ways to avoid or defray the cost of college tuition, but it still does not explain why there is such a high inflation rate.
Colleges have a huge overhead, and professors, teachers, and administrative costs are constantly increasing. Education is expensive, and for many, quality education in the Ivy League colleges are considered a luxury. The waiting line to enter these schools has not really decreased, even if the tuition rate is exorbitant. For many parents, it is the returns that the children get after graduating. They get first pick on the plum jobs, and even before graduating, have an offer to work for some of the top corporations in the country.
The tuition inflation may never really match the general inflation rate, it may only decrease during these times of economic problems. But teachers will want their raises and bonuses, expenses in running a university is escalating, and the general view is that if a university can delivery quality education, then it can charge a high tuition rate. Tuition inflation is a fact of life, and for private universities, there is not much anyone can do but grin and bear it.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY:
“You know college costs have gotten out of control when a 6% increase in tuition is considered good news.” – Sandra Block
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CONCLUSION:
College education is vitally important if you want to be successful in the business world today. Of course, there are people who have never graduated from college that have become highly esteemed and successful, but that ratio is just to small to gamble on.
