Is higher education meant to be free?

_{𝖣𝖾𝗌𝗂𝗀𝗇𝖾𝖽 𝗎𝗌𝗂𝗇𝗀 𝖼𝖺𝗇𝗏𝖺}

Hello hivers and fellow prestigious readers it is another weekly featured content on hive learners community titled "free higher education". before getting into the gist of the discussion, let me explain what higher education means.

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WHAT IS HIGHER EDUCATION

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Higher education which is also known as tertiary education, it is a structured institution where children around or above the age of 18 are offered the opportunity for acquisition of formal knowledge, skills and application of talents. the age frequency differs depending on the policies/policy guiding the educational sector of such country).

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WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HAVE "FREE HIGHER EDUCATION?

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This is the availability and accessibility of tertiary education that doesn't involve the citizen or residents or populace of such country to pay for acquisition of knowledge in any tertiary institution. certain strings might be attached such as ( being a citizen of such a country before you have access to the free higher education) regardless of any the added condition it is still free

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WHAT IS THE IMPLICATIONS OF FREE HIGHER EDUCATION IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES

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Due to the structure of different countries, the standard of higher education varies, in the sense that, for some developed nations with great stability in there economy, which makes resources available to trade for revenue to run day to day activities of such nation, such a country does not really need to capitalise on the revenue gotten from the cost of higher education.

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for such a nation free higher education won't result to lack of revenue, enabling of free higher education can be used to ease the life of the populace of such country, that doesn't mean they don't need revenue generated from the cost of higher education but they can do without it.

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for example the Ausbildung programme can be considered a free higher education, a programme which is fully supported by German government, such programme is used to support the development of the state and ease the academic process of populace of Germany, the only condition is that the courses are taught in German, so you must have completed your B2 language programme before you can apply for Ausbildung programme, I came to know of this because a cousin of mine is studying in Germany, after her Masters programme and language programme she applied for Ausbildung programme and also working in a clinic, it is one of the conditions also.

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WHAT IS THE IMPLICATIONS OF FREE HIGHER EDUCATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

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For such countries they do not have the privilege of a stable economy, cost of higher education is used to generate funds for the country, for developing nations higher education is way of generating revenue to sustain the economy of the state. in such a state they do not have the privilege or facilities to offer free higher education, apart from schools established by NGO (Non governmental organisations) to aid the standard of living of a country.

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HOW DOES IT AFFECT THE STANDARD OF TEACHING?

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from my own perspective, this depends on the economic stability of the country, I believe as long as the government is able to pay the teachers/lecturers salaries, I believe the the standard of teaching would be fine because education being free does not directly affect the standard of teaching as long as their availability of facilities and equipment for learning and paid workers, the educational system will flow smoothly.

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majority of times the reasons behind privatisation of higher education exist is because the government is unable to sustain the welfare of such academic institutions.

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IS HIGHER EDUCATION MEANT TO BE BE FREE?

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I'm sure everyone will say yes but I have contrary opinion, in the country where I'm from which is Nigeria, there is usually a distinguished factor used to differentiate between a government school and private school, which is cost and management.

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In many government owned institutions the most common elements is that it is affordable compared to the private owned institutions and the management of private institutions is more dependable than government owned institutions, for example such as unwarranted strike do not occur in the private system, which is a very common element in the government owned institutions.

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The most dependable government owned institutions are those who run on funds paid by students, not based on government grants. governmental institutions who are solely based on government revenue tends to have series of salary crisis, I can't count the number of times ASUU as gone on series of unwarranted strike due to lack of facilities for learning and salary, such things don't occur in the private sector because such things are paid for already.

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Back to the question asked is higher education meant to be free judging by the standard of living and management of schools from the country I'm from, I would say no. instead of free, it is much better for it to be affordable for an average Nigerian.

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Based on government inability to support the government owned institutions, which as created a lot of instability in the education sector resulting to waste of time and resources of the student, free higher education is not applicable because there will no availability of revenue to run the institution.

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I KNOW YOU MIGHT HAVE A CONTRARY OPINION, FEEL FREE TO LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENT SECTION I WILL LOVE TO KNOW YOUR PERSPECTIVE OF THIS SUBJECT.

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THANKS FOR STOPPING BY

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_{The pictures in the college image are mine}