Why is College So Expensive? - Essay Sample

Introduction

The past three decades have witnessed a significant increase in the number of students enrolling for higher education in universities, colleges and tertiary colleges, which can be attributed to the growing necessity of the college degree in the job market. However, the increased enrolment of students in the higher learning institutions has compounded with the escalation of the expenditures in this sector, ranging from tuition fee to accommodation costs for the learners (Gordon and Hedlund 2). Reports published by American College Board demonstrate that between the academic years 1979/1980 and 2009/2010, the average college tuition fee at the private four-year universities rose from $9,501 to $26,273, which is equivalent to over 175% increase. During the same period, in-state tuition fees at public four-year institutions also increased from $2,174 to $7,020 (Gonzalez and O'Sullivan 1). This task will seek to present an argument that colleges are expensive thus the need for understanding the forces behind the increasing expenditures in college education.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The college degree is primarily perceived to be a necessity in the current job market, hence explicitly leading to an escalation of the costs of college educations. In the contemporary job markets, a degree is a top requirement for a person to qualify for a particular task, even in professions where the degree was initially considered superfluous (Jensen 2). This has significantly contributed towards the rising number of students seeking for the enrollment in the higher learning institutions to pursue college degrees, which are not even essential for their profession. The necessity of college degree has led to an increase in the demand for higher education, prompting colleges to set tuition fee relatively higher, knowing that they will still attract a large body of students (Gonzalez and O'Sullivan 3). It is imperative for students to reconsider their career goals to assess the importance of college degree when pursuing their favorite occupation.

The federal student aid also has detrimental effects on college expenses. The federal student aid is meant to help talented learners who cannot afford to finance their higher education. The availability of the federal student aid prompts learners to be less cautious with expenses incurred in the college. For example, the students are likely to be less concerned with price tags and other costs charged in the higher learning institutions (Jensen 2). Students' reluctance to protest against rising costs of college education act as an incentive for the College Board to approve escalation of the tuition fee, knowing that they will face a minimal backlash from the students. This implies that the growing government subsidies have only increased the quantity of higher education demanded, as opposed to the overall improvement of the quality of education offered.

Federal student aid has continually grown over the years to maintain the college admission costs. For instance, from 1999 to 2009, the total amount of federal aid disbursed to college students rose from $61.1 billion to $116.8 billion during the same period (Gonzalez and O'Sullivan 3). During the academic year 2008-2009, students borrowed an average of $4,585 as compared to $1,637 during the school year of 1990-1991. The increase in the amounts of federal aid disbursed has coincided with the growth of college tuition costs incurred period (Gonzalez and O'Sullivan 3). An increase in the amounts of aid granted has also triggered the escalation of the tuition fee, thus negating the positive impact of the federal aid which was primarily meant to lower the overheads of accessing a college education, especially for the needy students. This implies that colleges and universities can raise the tuition costs but more students will still seek for enrollment.

Figure 1. Graph on the publication of the college textbooks

Figure 1. above indicates that the publication of the college textbooks has grown significantly in the last thirty years. Relatively higher rates of publishing reading materials for colleges can epitomize the growing necessity and demand for college education, which has translated into more expenses (Gordon and Hedlund 2). It can, therefore, be asserted that higher education is continually becoming expensive due to the costs of learning materials. This can also be attributed to the advanced technology and sophisticated researches where students are supposed to acquire costly digital devices such as phones and laptops.

The costs of student acquisition in American colleges has also skyrocketed. It has become a norm for the establishment of new for-profit colleges to be created yearly whereas the similar institutions are being rapidly expanded (Jensen 3). These for-profit colleges are continually competing with historic US colleges, private universities, state institutions and community colleges for the number of students enrolled. Analysis of the reports published by the College Board implies that annual growth in student openings has significantly surpassed the yearly increase in the number of learners joining American colleges (Gordon and Hedlund 3). Majority of institutions are therefore compelled to engage in non-sustainable student programs to cope with increasing competition for the acquisition of students. For example, colleges usually pay at least $35 to cater for the contact information for the prospective student. It is common for college colleges to spend exorbitant amounts on the process of recruiting and admitting students each year, which has indirectly contributed to the increase in tuition costs.

The staff benefits and student services have also spiraled up college expenses. Some of the standardized categories of college expenditures include instructions, research, student services, Scholarships and fellowships net of allowances and academic support (Lenihan and Wellman 20). Regardless of being considered to be the actual cause of rising college costs, faculty salaries, especially for the full-time remained flat from 1998 to 2008, which highlighted the need of analyzing staff benefits such as medical plans, retirement contributions and social security deductions in relation to the surging college costs Katherine 3). Public and private institutions are also continually increasing their expenditure on administration such as E&R.

Figure 2 below demonstrates that expenditure on the college staff compensation and benefits has grown continuously in the last three decades, which has coincided with increasing college expenses. This is an indication that escalating costs of salaries and wages of personnel in the colleges have made higher education to be costly.

Figure2. Line graph on the college expenses (wages and salaries) on the workforce

Conclusion

Different factors have been analyzed to attest that college expenses are relatively high. It has been established that financial aid expansion and the rising college premium (college tuition fee) has triggered the escalation of the college expenses. The growing necessity of a college degree as a critical requirement in the current job market has also increased the demand for higher education, thus encouraging colleges to charge a higher tuition fee for the growing enrolment of the students. There is a need for improving the quality of college education, to justify the exorbitant costs of acquiring higher education.

Works Cited

Gonzalez, Angelica and Courtney O'Sullivan. "Why Is College So Expensive?" National Center For Policy Analysis (2010): 1-2. Print.

Gordon, Grey and Aaron Hedlund. "Accounting for the Rise in College Tuition." (2017): 1-41. print. <https://www.nber.org/chapters/c13711.pdf>.

Jensen, Andrew. "Why Is College So Expensive?" (2018): 1-4. Web. <https://www.andrewjensen.net/why-is-college-so-expensive/>.

Katherine, Long. "How Staff benefits and Student Services Drive up College Tuition." The Seattle Times (2018): 1-3. Web. <http://blogs.seattletimes.com/educationlab/2014/02/10/how-and-why-college-salaries-contribute-to-rising-tuition-rates/>.

Lenihan, Colleen M. and Jane V. Wellman. "Trends in college Spending: 1998-2008." Lumina Foundation for Education (2010): 2-56. Print.