GRE Issue Topic 10

Sample 1:

Education has been strongly linked to increased income and better career prospects across the board. However, there are some groups within the United States who are unable to attain higher education by attending a university because they are unable to afford the tuition. The policy proposed here asks that the government offer free tuition for any student who has been admitted to a university but who cannot afford the tuition. While this may seem to be a good policy proposal initially, this proposal could stand to benefit from increased specificity in implementation. It is currently unclear whether this program would cover tuition fees for a program that a student has been admitted to and cannot afford if the student has also been admitted to a program that they can afford. In addition, the number of students that this would likely pertain to may not be financially feasible for the government.

The vast majority of universities offer financial aid programs for students who cannot afford full tuition, and at most universities less than half of the student body pays full tuition at any given time. Given this, it is not uncommon for low–income students to be offered financial aid packages from schools that they have been admitted to in order to give them the financial opportunity to attend. However, not all financial aid packages can be afforded by the student, even with the reduction in cost. In the event that a student was admitted to two universities, one that provided enough aid for the student to be able to afford to attend and one that did not, this policy implies that the student would receive free tuition for the program that he or she cannot afford, in spite of the fact that they have been admitted to a program that they can afford. This policy should be amended to state that free tuition is only offered if the student is admitted to a program that he or she cannot afford and has not been admitted to any other programs that the student can afford. Otherwise, this may lead to wasteful spending for students who wish to attend universities with higher tuition but cannot afford to do so.

Along this line, a significant portion of the US population qualifies as “low–income” to the point where it is unlikely that they would be able to afford to attend a university. While the US is a relatively wealthy country, it is unlikely that the federal government could afford to cover that amount of tuition fees without having to make sacrifices within other areas of the discretionary budget. This program would then quickly be disbanded, leaving matriculating students who were previously supported by government funding with no financial ability to remain a student at that university. Some limitations would have to be put in place on this policy to restrict the number of people that the federal government would sponsor (similar to standard scholarships) in order to ensure that the government would be able to fund the selected students throughout their college careers.

Giving a low–income student the opportunity to attend a university has the potential to permanently change their life for the better. However, the implementation of policy to reach this end must be mindful of the financial limitations of the federal government and focus on students who cannot afford to attend any university without external support instead of students who cannot afford to attend a particular university. With these changes, this policy has the potential to result in positive consequences for low–income students.

Sample 2:

Education plays an important role in the overall development of a child. For the harmonious transformation of a student into a responsible citizen, education must be made mandatory at least at the elementary level. To impart education to all, it should be made free at school level.

However, making college and university education free may yield adverse results. Students, as they pass high school and reach college are quite grown up and aware of their aptitudes. There may be many who would rather go in for a professional or vocational course. Others may be more interested in business. The ones left out would be genuinely interested in academics. By making university level education free, more and more students would be tempted to get enrolled. This can result in unemployment in future as lesser vacancies would be available for the large number of qualified students. To tackle unemployment, government would have to adopt various methods like entrance exams etc. which are not very reliable in selecting the meritorious and deserving students.

Moreover, due to shortage of appropriate posts, the more qualified ones may have to settle down for jobs that do not honor their capabilities and hard work put in for the acquired degrees. This will not only demoralize the overqualified ones, but also distort the image of university education in the eyes of new aspirants.

College and university education, if made free, will heavily burden the government financially. It will be not only difficult to provide the best of facilities like good libraries, laboratories, scientific and sports equipments etc. but also challenging to pay the hired staff and faculty. In the wake of lesser salaries, less and less people would be interested in joining the faculty. If the deserving candidates would not be paid justifiably, then there will be deterioration in the quality of education imparted. Making education free at university level may also reduce the standards of education as students may develop a laid back attitude and may not feel the necessity to clear the courses at the earliest. This will further deteriorate the standard of education and create a huge backlog of students for the government to entertain.

Apart from the financial difficulty in paying the staff and providing appropriate facilities to the students, there will be yet another challenge for the government to look after the other employment channels.

Although education is a must, there are other skills required too in different fields. If all these skills are explored and promoted well, only then can a nation be more independent financially. The works of handicrafts, interior and fashion designing, sports, farming, etc. are just a few to mention that need the government’s assistance to flourish to the fullest. To be unbiased towards all streams of talent and employment, the government will be under pressure to make all these trainings free as well. This will be a difficult task to accomplish. Thus, making the university level education free will put a lot of economic strain on the government.

Making university and college level education free will be beneficial neither for the government nor for the citizens in the long run. Thus, instead of making the university education free, the government should adopt other ways of channelizing the talents of the youth and also keep a check on private institutions overburdening the students by high fee structure.