“Countries with Free or Nearly Free Tuition.” This is not necessarily an article. Rather, it is a listing of countries whose colleges provide free tuition. However, that is not necessarily all that it does. The information that it presents is listed in a chart- like format. The sections of the charts differentiate between whether or not said country provides free tuition to just citizens, or to foreigners as well. In terms of whether or not said free tuition is available, it then may present stipulations, or restrictions, such as the languages used for the classes, or which foreigners are allowed the free tuition.
According to the article, it seems that most of the countries listed tend to be in Europe, with some others coming from either Africa or South America. Of those European countries, the free tuition seems to be restricted to EU citizens only. This implies that either the costs of free tuition tends to be extremely costly, and as a result, is an expenditure that they do not want to spend or waste.
Further, it may be possible that those countries have attempted free tuition for all and led to negative consequences. The chart also shows three colleges that offer free colleges, but only a specific language. They are likely not willing to spend money on foreign language educators and professors, further presenting the idea that the free education costs a lot of money to maintain.
Then, of course, Norway and Sweden, two countries which are fairly well-known for their free education, are shown. Norway’s downfall is that it has a high cost of living. This cost of living is either caused by, or increased by, it’s high taxes. Presumably, said tax money is what is used to maintain the free college for all. Actually, Norway has one of the heaviest taxes in the world. Most articles show Norway having above a 40% of GDP and personal income tax rates approaching 50%+.
This will be used as a point of reference as to which companies are affected, whether positively or negative, by the free college education. At this point, only inferences can be drawn.
Petroff, Alanna. “New York Offers Free College Tuition. So Do These European Countries.” In this article, the idea about New York creating a program in which students whose parents make less than 100,000 will be eligible for free tuition. Alana Petroff, goes on to list German, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Norway, and some other European countries with similar deals. The main idea behind this article seems to be that it will state and explain other countries who provide free college tuition financed by the state. The listing of this article is similar to the other article, simply more in depth. It states that Germany has an international tuition free program.
Estonia and the Czech Republic has a similar offer, but it’s restricted to only being taught in the local language. Petroff states that students specifically in the Czech Republic would have to pay if they are overstaying, which tends to be a year over the standard length to earn the degree. France’s presence in this article is actually interesting. According to Petroff, France technically charges tuition, but that they are so small that they can be lower than registration fees of other nations. She then states a rough estimate of about $212 in annual tuition fees.
Essentially, this will be another point of reference for countries that require further research. However, it is important to note that, within the Sweden portion of this article, Nordic countries have high tax rates along with their low tuition costs, according to Petroff. It is essentially showing that those countries need some type of way to avoid losing too much money from their methods of ensuring the freedom of higher education.
Olson, Gary A. “The Unintended Consequences of Free Tuition Proposals.” This article proposes potential and hypothetical consequences and side effects of free tuition. The article itself is from January, so the proposed number of $125,000 a year or less that Gary Olson may change. Mr. Olson believes that, because a large number of degrees are conferred via private colleges in New York, an immense flooding of students would move towards the free tuition based public college.
Olson goes on to say that this would overwhelm state tuitions and lead them with no choice but to appeal for millions of dollars in funding to accommodate for the new students, who would require more staff and buildings. Interestingly enough, he Olson believes that community colleges would also be endangered. The appeal of the community colleges has been their low tuition. As such, it wouldn’t make much sense to attend community colleges if the the other public colleges were free to attend. The article then goes on to present the estimated economic impact of non-for-profit colleges and how that would create additional unintended consequences.
Given the information in this article, New York’s non-for-profit colleges would have an impact of roughly $80 billion annually. This information could lead to a lack of feasibility in the push for free tuition. The numbers presented where predominantly in New York. Although New York is a fairly large state, there are other states whose economic impacts are likely similar.
