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Should University Education also be Free?
Have you ever thought that why we need to pay for university education? In fact, whether university education should be free or not is a topical issue discussed for a long time. Nowadays, education is an easiest way for people to live better in this fast-growing civilization. However, the tuition troubles the young generation in many countries. It makes them work rather than pursue further study after graduating from high school. Moreover, free university education is necessary for our country to improve the society and reduce the economic pressure of the young generation.

First, free university education can gradually improve the society. In recent years, the global development has required many countries to specialize in higher technology or better value-added products. Hence, the necessity of professional people in certain specialization has been crucial now. People can cultivate different kinds of professional skills and acquire them in more academic way in university. Then, as the university education is free, there will be more skilled graduates for various industries in our society. According to the website of University of the People (N/D), there will be increasing numbers of employable people from diverse industries and the high-skilled jobs. As more people get into the workforce, the wealth gap between social classes will be lessen. Besides, according to Valero and Reenen’s study (2019), the countries with higher levels of productivity and GDP have higher rates of university education. We can infer that if there are more educated people, the better the society can invent new things and solve the problem.
Furthermore, if the university education can be free, student debt will no longer crush the younger generation, which also leads to several positive side effects. During the period of university life, students won’t be forced to do several part time jobs in order to pay for their student debt. In other words, they can pay more attention on their studies and their extracurricular activities to explore the knowledge of world. Moreover, if there’s no more student debt, students can choose what they want to major in rather than the so-called practical department in order to pay for the student debt as soon as possible. After choosing the department they are interested in, they will go a long way and won’t burn out easily. Therefore, the free university education can definitely reduce student’s stress on paying the student debt and have several positive effects.


In spite of several advantages about free university education, some people still argue that it will lower the quality of education. In other words, the resources provided by the education system will be wasted and the student’s ability or quality will be lower. In fact, it’s merely a minority part of the whole society. Although the university education is free, students still decide whether to study in university or not based on their willingness rather than compulsory education, such as elementary school to high school. Plus, the quality of education depends on students’ mind set individually toward the study and how the whole system works. If the education system works well and it distributes each student to the suitable place, the phenomenon of poor quality education will be lower. Besides, loosening the policy to free the university education will increase the diversity of specialty in university. And then, students in different fields can exchange their ideas or even innovate something by the interaction and transaction with others, which definitely increases the quality of education in university.
To sum up, the advantages of free university education overweigh the disadvantages. Based on several reasons mentioned above, such as improving the whole society and reducing the young’s stress in debt, I strongly suggest that the university education should be free. After all, the young generation is definitely the most crucial human capital for a country.

References:
Anna, V. & John, V.R. (2019,Feb). The Economic Impact of Universities: Evidence from across the globe. ScienceDirect.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0272775718300414
Sources:
Website of University of the People. (N/D) Reasons Why College Should be Free?
https://www.uopeople.edu/blog/5-reasons-why-college-should-be-free/
Tejvan Pettinger. (2019, Mar). Should University Education be Free. Economics Help.
https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/949/economics/should-university-education-be-free/
Ellen Andersen. (2020, Jul). Why College Should Be Free: Pros and Cons. Collegeraptor
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