After reading Yixin Song’s blog ‘Student debt: Knowledge vs. Poverty’, I found myself in a deep thinking stage. I am in agreement with most of her statements, however, there are also points where I would like to suggest an alternative way of thinking.
I agree with Yixin Song from the perspective of a student. Being a student with no source of income and whose entire life expense is dependent upon my family, I always feel the already-expensive tuition fee burdens my family and the increasing fee will exacerbate on the financial pressure. If the international student fee and residence fee are determined to increase by respectively 10% and 20% next year, many international students, including myself, will find it difficult to manage. Hence, we can consider ourselves as business entities and make value judgements upon the worthiness of paying more than before to receive a exceptional quality of education, which is exactly the same as making an investment now to possibly benefit ourselves in the future.
However, since students’ way of thinking can be understood through a business concept, then we might change our view to a different stakeholder’s perspective to understand the university’s decision. Despite the university’s constant re-emphasis on the its ultimate goal of providing the best education to future generations, it still behaves like a firm with its business-like operations. It must consider gaining revenue from students to cover multiple costs such as staff, construction and maintenance; it must consider competition with both domestic and international universities; meanwhile it must also constantly improve on the quality of education and depth of research year by year. The board of administration explains that this grand increase in both fees is due to a serious increase in research and construction costs of the school facilities, and the university is behind its competitors in international tuition fee already. Although always putting themselves under the title of unprofitable, the board must execute strategies to make sure the university is at least not making a loss. This in-turn brings a reasonable explanation on the school’s perspective of increasing fees.
In conclusion, the argument falls onto the difference of the student’s perspective and the university’s perspective. The student must consider a balance between the investment for a better future and increased financial pressure in the present. Similarly, the university also needs to find a balance between an affordable education for students and a solution to cover increasing costs. Consensus is a must to solve this issue.