[Magdalen] Tuition

[Roger Stokes]

It's an issue this side of the pond as well. Back in the day (1965-68) I 
got a grant from the local authority which covered all tuition plus a 
sum that (with parentyal contribution) was expected to cover maintenance 
costs. Having a paid job in term-time was strongly discouraged. The 
arrangement differ in the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom 
but here in England tuition is a maximum of 9,250 GBP (currently $12,066 
in US terms). There are loans for this (and poossibly a bit towards 
maintenance) which are repayable from income tax after graduation and 
wiped after 30 years.

It is recognized that a significant proportion of students will never 
pay back all their loan. Having said that a number of studies have shown 
that some degree courses do not offer a positive financial payback over 
a lifetime's earnings. The tuition fee was introduced with much vaunting 
of the "graduate premium" in earnings which some of us doubted at the 
time. It coincided with a significant increase in the number of 
degree-awarding courses so the normal rules of supply and demand 
applied. The government's aim was that most young people would go to 
university which I always thought was a misbegotten idea. Increasing the 
proportion of young people going to university inevitably means lowering 
the bar for university admission and some would find it beyond them and 
drop out with a sense of failure. Their skills lie in other areas and it 
would have been better for them if they had gone straight from school 
into somthing that offered more appropriate training. We are always 
going to need plumbers. electricians, hairdressers, builders, etc.

Roger

On 12/08/2020 14:08, cantor03--- via Magdalen wrote:
> I'm feeling really old to hear my neighbors discuss the cost of sending their kids tocollege.  For example, the neighbor boy who attends the Notre Dame branch locally(Kings, Wilkes-Barre) is paying $20,000 per year..  State colleges for residentsare a bit less, but still hefty.  If memory serves me, my freshman year at UW-Madison for my resident status was$89 per semester ('55 - '56)..  By the time I got my bachelor's degree four years later, thecost had increased to $225 oer semester.  Room and board for a year in theWisconsin dormitories was $680 in 1955 - 1956 and $850  my undergraduate senior year.  Then UW Medical School was $1,200 per senester, but it fell to $600 medical schoolsenior year semester because they paid us for drawing all the bloods at UW Medical Center.  I had a good summer job with the Wisconsin Highway Department, and paid for mostof the expense of tuition plus room and board.  I had no student debt.  This is all ancient history.  These current kids will have all this expense and NO FOOTBALL.  David Strang.