Should the higher education be provided free of charge to anyone?

Davina Shindler: Ideally higher education would be provided to all those who want it, and are capable of using it, free of charge. In UK, this used to be true, where tuition fees, and living expenses were paid for. This was at a time when only 1 in 8 attended university. Today, many more people aspire to university (approaching 1 in 2), but there is no more money, so the same money needs to spread more thinly (University is still subsidised, but not to the same extent). Enough people want to attend without extra financial inducement, and therefore society receives the positive externality anyway (i.e. a high % of highly educated people).Ideally higher education would be free of charge, but fortunately plenty of students want to attend even though it isn't, and therefore society gets the benefits anyway....Show more

Kip Ockenfels: People tend not to value that which is free. And to avoid waste of resources, perhaps it would be best to have free education only fo! r students who attain a reasonable grade point average.Also, not all education is equally useful and needed in the economy. Producing a lot of PhD's in Islamic studies or in Christian Theology probably won't help the economy much. But producing more engineers and scientists probably would help the economy a lot in the long run.And for this reason, taxpayer support for education should be selective rather than indiscriminate....Show more

Christiane Cattano: True b/c externalities exceed cost, so net effect is positiveIn fact, it might be beneficial to pay people to enter college. Even if tuition is waived, doing college costs time and effort. If externalities exceed these costs, it is optimal to compensate kids for entering college.

Russell Mckinzie: I don't know what you mean by "externalities." I think if university education were free, you would have a lot more party schools than there are already. There are a LOT of kids who take easy classes and just scre! w around (I remember from my days in college in the 80's). I t! hink that would get worse, just extending high school for some of the party types. So in the US, I don't agree it should be free. I do think it is priced way too high nowadays, though, so should be subsidized more, like it used to be in the 70's....Show more

Isaias Badgley: No it should not.Society should provide education where social benefits=social costs. If the state where to pay for higher education, you would see social costs exceed social benefits.Yes, it is better to maximize personal benefits by going to college, but society should not foot the bill.In fact, it has been studied by development economists that providing education up to high school produces more social costs than benefits.You also look at a nation like India. They are suffering from credentialization because everyone has a college degree and many people have a masters. What happens is you have people getting a bachelors so that they can better battle for a janitorial job or such. The costs ! aren't worth it if higher education is given to everyone. Think of it like the inflation of the education system....Show more