Reasons Why Tuition for US Higher Education Institutions Should Be Lowered For Online Learning during the Pandemic
The education sector remains one of the most stricken sectors by the Covid-19 pandemic. This condition has forced almost all the universities to go online, an activity that makes the students feel that the tuition fee should be reduced. The feel arises as they think that it is not fair for students to keep paying the full amount, despite the fact the learning experience is now from their computers. For students who expect to gain the latter experience from the real interaction after the schools get reopened after the pandemic might get it wrong as the pandemic continues to spread and conditions worsening. Now after getting the reality of online learning, students begin to complain, about the high tuition fee which they state should be lowered, as per the CNBC news. Despite the plea majority of the universities in the United States have not responded to the complaint. Additionally, the quality of education offered via online media does not make the majority of the students happy, which has forced some of them to choose to cease online learning. The reason for the withdrawal followed the claim that online learning does not need much money, thus a need to revise the fee structure downwards to reduce or lower the tuition fee for this form of study to continue. There are very many reasons that the university gives not to lower the tuition, which has made many students keep thinking about the pandemic which is still going on, and that the university must lower the tuition.
Views, opinions, and facts have been debated on reducing the tuition fee during the pandemic. A group of proponents argues that the possibility of lowering the tuition fee is not promised, generally giving the fact that the college or university expenses are still the same with or without the pandemic. Even with the realization of the condition that the parents and students are undergoing with this pandemic, the efforts to reduce the tuition fee seem not to bear any fruits. The majority of the students claim that with full realization of position on temporary online instruction, there is a need to reduce the tuition, among the parents and students. It is straightforward and almost everyone is aware that there are a lot of market pressures aimed at lowering tuition fees. However, despite being faced with many challenges based on the environment and financial challenges, there is no hope to reduce the tuition, especially, even for many families which have been hit harder by the pandemic.
Nonetheless, the pandemic will not eliminate the financial needs of the faculty and staff members at the college or the university. Although the majority of the students opt towards forcing the reduction of the tuition fee, the wealthy families who have not experienced a significant financial hit during the pandemic feel free with the original price charge. Although lowering the fees would make the education affordable some of the views have been discussed highlighting the disadvantage of lowering the dues as the families and students demand, first colleges have fixed costs, for instance, the faculty members who perform the teaching, counselors, tutors, and other supporters expenses, all these experts play significant roles in the running of the university. Additionally, shifting studies to online does not decrease the demand of these officials, this is because the only aspect of learning transferred to the online is the instruction. The tuition is thus needed as much as the real costs are covered by the tuition. Therefore, the price charged for either online or classwork cannot be reduced.
Additionally, online instructions cannot be referred to as zoom. As well these online teaching platforms offer additional expenses, such as investments in management software, which allows the instructors to assign works and at times provide automatic feedback. Further, the system should be developed in a way that it can track students’ progress and allowing sharing of students’ observations, which demand a clear plan and online strategy so that the online transition is done effectively and efficiently, this calls for further investments. It is also, essential to ensure that the quality of online instruction is not inferior compared to those in-person learning, which requires adequate pre-planning and constituent execution, which demands the quality of time and assurance on what the institution is paying for. The proponents have to it that to achieve online practices demand financing, which can only be sourced, from the students’ tuition fee, therefore, cannot be reduced, but instead increased if need be.
However, students and families are already complaining about the pandemic. The reason for complaining is the grounds on the quality of learning offered by the online tutors. This seems different from what they had already adapted to, for instance, the new use of PowerPoint slide presentation, which they feel is inadequate. To support this argument, an American article by Hess confirms that over 93 percent of the United States college students are for the option to lower tuition so long as classes remain online. This followed after research reveals that over 75 percent are unhappy with the quality of online classes, with a large population of 35% withdrawing from the school. The reason for concern in this discussion is to evaluate what should be done to meet both educational needs, students and parents with the pandemic. Besides, we would focus on the best practice that can be deployed by institutions to offer education, which is affordable having in mind that the pandemic has destroyed and displaced the wellbeing of individuals. This would help moderate the number of resources that are needed to offer free tuition and not compromising with the overall institution functions.
Conclusion
In general, during this pandemic Americans, many lives have been adversely impacted. The pandemic has taken away jobs, resulting in stress and hardships, whose magnitude has been felt all over the world. Similarly, colleges and universities were not left out in these stresses as well as the students. Thus, students need to understand that their colleges are experiencing an economic fallout with the existence of the pandemic. More so, there is a need to ensure that learning does not stop even amid the pandemic, therefore the colleges have to do all that it takes that they help students, during this hard time to ensure that they complete their education. The completion of the education will help the students earn degrees, which can be used in launching their lives. More importantly, the institutions have an ultimate role to ensure that the institutions consider revising the tuition fees, to make them much possible for the students and families, especially, those from social-disadvantaged or marginalized families.
