# FEES MUST FALL – The effects of high rate university drop-out

“Free higher education is an idea outside of the mainstream, and full implementation is a political impossibility anytime soon. But it is worth thinking about a broader vision of what higher education can and should achieve, and the best way of getting there. “

-Josh Freedman -

Making higher education free will be expensive...

ACCESSIBILITY   AND AFFORDABILITY: Cost will no longer be a barrier when there is no cost.

 This is not strictly true because there is always an opportunity cost.

Free higher education is the most direct way to dispel the notion that the poor cannot afford higher education; for all the well-intentioned efforts to get more low-income students into Tertiary, the easiest way to do so is to prove they can afford it by making it free.

Picture by http://www.mediaforjustice.net/

VALUE AND ACCOUNTABILITY: Students might be, less sensitive to costs, and less likely to hold a university accountable for an education that they are not paying for.

QUALITY - There is a quality concern- that lowering the cost of higher education will lower its quality. This is certainly a possibility; any change can bring with it negative outcomes.

EXEMPTING STUDENT FROM RISK - students should bear some risk – after all, it is an “investment” and they do accrue many of the gains of the education.

ONE OF THE MAIN CONCERNS IS HOW THE MOVE WILL ADDRESS THE FOLLOWING DILEMMA –

According to recent information released by Higher Education SA (HESA), a Section 21 company representing all 23 public universities and technikons in South Africa, the dropout rate has escalated alarmingly in recent years, and is hitting highs of up to up to 35% at some universities, with the bulk of those leaving being first-year students.  The Human Sciences Research Council’s recent study of about 34 000 students showed that of this amount, only 14 000 students graduated, with some 20 000 dropping out of their courses, most of them being either in their first year or midway through their second year of study. Moneyweb -16 March 2009 17:22

Lack of information.  
It has been found that in the final year of high-school students are not provided with the advice, information and guidance required in order for them to make conscious and holistic choices of possible areas and subjects of study and concrete pathways to these

This is a very costly mistake, both in terms of ‘wasting’ time and finances, as well as students then losing interest in their tertiary studies and dropping out.