There has always been polemic concerning public higher education. Most people would agree that primary and secondary schools ought to be “free” because no one chooses his birthplace, and everyone should have a chance to succeed. But the same argument does not necessarily apply to college. In college, applicants are already “grown-up” and thus should be able to fend for themselves. But is college really that necessary? In the spirit of full-disclosure, I may be hypocritical, for I attend a public university (Germany) which is paid with tax-payers money.
Only a few things in life are free. What we understand as “Free” education is actually just paid by somebody else. In reality public universities are paid for by taxes. Instead of thinking about money, let’s think about time. In order to earn money, people have to work, thus sacrificing their precious time. If we levy a tax of 16.6% on workers in order to pay for the “free” education, you are forcing everyone to work for 2 months every year not for themselves, but for others who they probably don’t even know, or worse, for bureaucrats. Even if it sounds great in theory, and many would think it is a desirable goal, there are some who don’t. The problem is, when universities are free-of-charge, you are forcing everyone to pay for them, even the ones who don’t agree with it.
However, the point of this post is not to handle the moral question lying behind the issue. That would take a post all by itself. What I hope we can agree in, is that it is a controversial issue, which is to say, cannot be answered so easily. But let’s ask ourselves, what are the alternatives? Does no public universities mean ignorant masses, unaffordable education, a life of despair? In the past it might have meant so, even though higher education was not as necessary as it is today.
We live in a new era. The Internet era. We can access all the world’s information with a few clicks. We have the biggest library for free (Google), the most extensive and up-to-date encyclopedia (Wikipedia), exclusive access to the minds of the Crème-de-la-Crème (Twitter), the most extensive video collection (Youtube), unlimited sharing power and the ability to create communities (Facebook) and publish knowledge (Wordpress, Blogger, Tumblr). Previously I admitted that I went to a public university in Germany. But I could argue that I actually attend the University of the Internet. Anything I don’t understand immediately (Almost everything) I Google, Youtube, or Wikipedia it. In fact, there are some lectures I don’t even attend and learn it all by myself at the library.
If we have the time and care to, we could study any subject all by ourselves. Recently I’ve read a tempting argument ( http://goo.gl/fxKbE )that instead of going to college, we should educate ourselves through the internet and then write about it (blogs) and show the world (Youtube videos) what we’ve learned as certificate (Savoir-faire) that we have not lost our time. Our blogs and video pages could be shown to potential employers who would attest that we are hard-working. This method would not only be beneficial for the ones who do it, but for the whole world, who could now access this knowledge.
If you are sceptical of this option, and think you have to have a real degree, then meet the “University of the People”, a fee-free initiative ( http://www.uopeople.org/ ). There you can study for free, wherever you come from. There are also increasingly new free education projects, some by the most prestigious institutions (Harvard, MIT) ( http://goo.gl/EZo3b , http://goo.gl/iO4fx ).
If the number of self-educated people grew, then so would the supply of materials and options. People could organize themselves and create self-learning communities. They could meet to watch online lectures together and correct each other’s work. Some older students could charge a low price to give private lectures and so on. It could even be argued that this personalized method of learning could potentially be even better that on-campus education.
I’m not saying that going to college is not worth it, what i’m trying to argue is that it is not the only option to receive higher education knowledge. It would be a mistake to think that if there were no public universities, people would remain uneducated. In this new era, anyone that wants, could do it.
P.S: Perhaps this does not easily apply to subjects such as Medicine.
@Corderrosas
@Corderrosas
Very interesting. You said so called "free education" is actually financed by tax payers that s totally right but as you probably know it s an investment of these Tax payers since those students will then take over and actually substitute them as tax payers in order to pay their old age pension or else health care. I find it a very sustainable system which makes sure all potentials in the society are being given a chance and for the taxpayers it s like giving for their own future (investment).
ReplyDeleteThen I totally can relate to this part: that anything you don t understand you look up on the internet I always do that too. I even decided to learn C++ by myself on the internet if only my University courses would leave me the time to.
I always thought I was wasting my time at the university and even told you all this just in order to get a degree. Since bright minds don t need to be taught things when they can go and search accurate informations by themselves.
I find this Idea with blogs to prove people s researchs really a good Idea and their should be more of these alternatives since people tend to believe only students have sharp minds but that isn t true, everybody has got something valuable to say.
Good one!