Tuition payments, usually known as tuition in American English and as tuition fees in Commonwealth English, are fees charged by education institutions for instruction or other services. Besides public spending (by governments and other public bodies), private spending via tuition payments are the largest revenue sources for education institutions in some countries. In most countries, especially countries in Scandinavia and Continental Europe, there are no or only nominal tuition fees for all forms of education, including university and other higher education.
Contents
Payment methods
Some of the methods used to pay for tuition include:
By location
Countries such as South Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom have “up-front tuition policies." These policies generally include a tuition fee that is large enough to give parents and/or guardians "a responsibility to cover some portion of their children’s higher education costs." This responsibility can make it difficult for a low-income student to attend college without requiring a grant or one or more loans.
Tuition fees in the United Kingdom were introduced in 1998, with a maximum permitted fee of £1,000. Since then, this maximum has been raised to £9,000 in most of the United Kingdom, while Scotland has abolished tuition.
Tuition in the United States is expensive, and it is common for students to enter into extensive debts to pay for it. Tuition is one of the costs of a post-secondary education. The total cost of college is called the cost of attendance (or, informally, the "sticker price") and, in addition to tuition, it can include room and board and fees for facilities such as books, transport and/or commuting provided by the college.
French tuition fees are capped based on the level of education pursued, from 183 Euros per year for undergraduate up to 388 for doctorates. Some public universities have autonomous status, meaning that they can charge much higher tuition, and all private universities charge tuition.
By institution
Tuition is charged at different rates from one type of institution to the next. Net tuition indices mark an increase in the “relative real burden” for payments at various types of institutions for higher education; in the period between 1980 and 1995, for example, this burden increased by approximately 80 percent for students at public universities and by 148 percent for students at private universities.
Most students and/or their families who pay for tuition and other education costs don't have enough savings to pay in full while they are in school. Some students must work and/or borrow money to afford an education. In the United States, student financial aid is available to defray the cost of a post-secondary education: “Financial aid is typically thought to exert the most influence in [attendance], when admitted students consider whether to enroll in a particular institution.” It is often the case that the lower the cost of the school, the more likely a student is to attend.
Developed countries have adopted a dual scheme for education: while basic (i.e. high-school) education is supported by taxes rather than tuition, higher education usually requires tuition payments and/or fees.
People may purchase tuition insurance to protect themselves from fees related to involuntary withdrawal (illness, death of a parent or guardian, etc.)
History
In medieval Europe, universities were mainly institutions of the Catholic Church. As they mainly trained clergy, most of these universities did not have any need to exact fees from the students with one notable exception: during the 12th century, while under the supervision of Pierre le Mangeur, the University of Paris began collecting two sous weekly in tuition.
Later, the main duty of universities in most Protestant countries was the training of future civil servants. Again, it was not in the interest of the state to charge tuition fees, as this would have decreased the quality of civil servants. On the other hand, the number of students from the lower classes was usually kept in check by the expenses of living during the years of study, although as early as the mid-19th century there were calls for limiting the university entrance by middle-class persons. A typical family, however, could not afford educating a child or young adult, even if the education itself was free. A similar situation exists today in many Third World countries, where the expenses of "free" schooling (food, books, school uniform, etc.) prevent some children from attending any school.
After World War II the tuition systems of all of today's advanced democracies still were highly similar: Education institutions in all countries charged no or only very low tuition fees. It was not before the 1950s that the countries' education systems developed in different directions. Some countries, especially the Anglo-Saxon countries (for example the United States) but also Asian countries such as Japan, introduced considerable tuition payments already in the early post-war period. Other countries, particularly in Scandinavia and continental Europe, in contrast remained tuition-free. These developments were unrelated to the massive educational expansion that took place at the same time.
Since the early 1970s, the average cost of tuition has steadily outpaced the growth of the average American household. This trend continued particularly under President Reagan's higher education policies in the 1980s. Likewise, there has been a steady decrease in federal funding for grants and a rise in the interest rates of most major student loans, leaving many students struggling to pay debt for years after graduation.
College tuition for undocumented students
The Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act is a piece of legislation that is under the Senate floor. The DREAM Act will allow the estimated 50,000 to 65,000 undocumented students in America gain in-state tuition as well as a path towards citizenship. This law will only be applied to those students who have physical proof of being in the United States before the age of 18. This Act has been a large debate for numerous groups, the senate itself, institutions, and families.
As of March 2013, undocumented students are required to pay in between $ 20,000 and $35,000 for their local public university. Due to their families' economic status, these tuition amounts have not allowed many of those 50,000 to 65,000 students to receive secondary education. In addition to higher tuition, these students are also unable to receive any federal assistance as they are denied Social Security numbers.