Economic and Social Reasons Why Tuition Should Go Down

Before entering the faculty, I was an extreme leftist who hated “The Man” and whose goal in life was to end social conservatism and global apathy on topics that hit close to home to me through economic reasoning. Once entering the Asper School of Business, however, I found myself understanding the mindset of fellow colleagues who would indeed be “The Man”. I may have grown more conservative whilst my time here, but I still have a little bit of residual leftist blood in me, so I’m going to take a stab at this controversial topic from my point of view: that tuition prices should go down.
Let’s start looking at this from an economic point of view. A university is an institution. An institution in the private sector would have a bottom line of reducing costs while increasing revenue. Why don’t universities do the same? Granted, universities are to be ever expanding, but during this expansion, they are definitely incurring costs. These costs are the loss of human capital. Think about it: if all students are to foot the bill of their education, there will be students who will not able to meet the financial demands of the university. If these students do not enrol, there will be a definite loss of diversity, idea generation, and productivity. Such skills are not rooted in those who can afford to go to school. Having money is not a skill, and neither should it be rewarded by the gift of higher education. The reduction of tuition would increase the supply of students entering the university, and in turn diversifying the student body, adding comprehensive quality to the graduates from the school.
Let’s develop this economic point of view further: the purpose of education through government funding is to prepare citizens to produce future economic gain for the state. Universities enrich students with knowledge that will allow them to benefit the workforce. Social norms have become such, that higher education is necessary to yield the best future opportunities. These gains include a higher standard of living and comfort that the monetary gain can afford. Education is necessary to yield the best opportunity for future generations; to allow this to be an attainable goal, we must not place more obstacles in the path of those pursuing knowledge. The reduction of tuition would indeed rid of the financial obstacle of those who pursue such knowledge, and can in turn produce future economic gain for the state with the acquired knowledge.
Universities train students to be productive. We are put through a series of obstacles, such as tests, projects, presentations, essays, theses, assignments, etc., in order to adhere to the demands we will face in the workplace with quality. With the financial impediment of tuition, students must pass through this additional obstacle and still present quality school work. The reduction of tuition will enable students who work to finance their education to put less time towards working, using that time towards completing the obstacles put forth through schoolwork, and therefore training themselves to be more productive individuals.
The financial impediment students face can also be financed more by the government. The government also controls factors which may limit citizens from producing economic gains. The government controls limitations through regulations: i.e universal healthcare to avoid paying the heavy burden of medical costs. As the government expects to provide students to one day produce economic gain for the state, they must take action to reduce the necessity of individual financing and increase the government funding for tuition. After all, if the government is instituting universities as a form of public education, there should be limited hindrances for the public to get such education. The government subsidies that reduce tuition will enable students to not face the financial hardship of financing school, and therefore meet the expectations the government has of students to produce economic gains for the state.
I wanted to outline just a few of many points that support the argument that tuition should not be as high as it is. The tuition is increasing at a rate double than the inflation rate, and such costs must be controlled if we want a future of a diverse, quality workforce.