15th March 2012 9:00
By Blue Tutors
We recently published an article on our website about MIT’s foray into providing free online courses for students around the world. These courses won’t be as prestigious as receiving an undergraduate degree from MIT, but they will be worth a considerable amount of academic merit, and it really does begin to highlight the increasing need for students to monetarise their university education, and decide whether the cost of it is less than the eventual benefit.
When university education was free, as individuals we didn’t question the value of a degree. Students were offered the opportunity to achieve a certificate which would increase their chances of a job, and all for spending 3 years enjoying university life. It could still be argued that many students would have been better served to find a job after leaving school, rather than attend a poor university, but the attraction of remaining a student for 3 years was usually too much to pass up. This has changed.
In 1999 students began contributing towards their university tuition fees, and from this September students will pay up to £27,000 a for a university degree. This has turned further education into something more closely resembling a free market, and, as in any market, there will over-priced and under-priced commodities.
Last year a group of academics in London announced their intention to set up a private university which would charge students somewhere between £10,000 and £15,000 a year for their tuition. Although more than the current maximum allowable tuition fees, this private university must be a very attractive proposition for many students because they will be taught by some of the best academics in the country, and, if the reputation of the university grows, the £30,000 - £45,000 spent on a degree may be well worth it.
The other side of the coin is that some organisations may begin to realise that they can provide a competitive university education at a fraction of the existing £9,000 maximum tuition fee. Following the MIT model, lectures given online, resources available from a website and tutorials available online or at a small cost would surely be more than on a par with many existing courses, where students may attend only 2-3 hours of compulsory work each week.