Future Consequences of University Fees Hike

Big cuts by the UK government and a tripling of university tuition fees pushed British students to protest. Passing tuition fees rise by the British parliament may have implications that will affect the future of higher education in the UK and elsewhere.

Naturally, students regard the increase of educational fees as a nightmare that may endanger the routine pace of their studies. On the other hand, the governments including the European ones have to increase their domestic incomes (dues to the current economic recession) through the sources they have control over. This may make a clash of interests between the governments and the students (people), leading them to natural reactions that are not always controllable. The ultimate result will be a significant change in the nature of higher education in the UK and perhaps in other countries.

If the academies take the upper hand in this standoff and increase the tuition fees and the students’ protests lead to no (tangible) result in reversing the British government’s decisions over the increase of fees , then a cascade of implications will be inevitable for the future of higher education and the students whose futures are affected by the related decisions. Here is a predictive list of implications that may appear over the next weeks and months:

1. Students’ Immigration. Universities with lower fees will be attractive for the students who are concerned about their academic futures. The universities in countries like India and the Philippines may face a rush of applications sent by the students who are eager to continue their education in cheaper ways. New rules and regulations may be established by these countries to monitor the process of admissions more carefully. They may be also willing to increase tuition fees by seeing so many applicants!

2. Lower Quality Education. Those higher education institutes who are eligible to arrange and run academic programs may provide courses with lower costs and qualities. The students who attend such programs will have many problems after graduation (and receiving related certificates), especially in the market. Meanwhile, a number of profit seeker institutes will grow up and threaten future of universities (as civil societies’ knowledge-based institutions) in an unjustified competition.

3. Rise of E-learners. Given the fact that the tuition fees of e-learning (distance learning) courses are usually lower than conventional academic courses; there may be a rise of interest among students for attending such programs. Those universities who offer such programs may enhance their e-learning courses and even lower their prices in order to grab more students. There may be a real competition among the universities and colleges to snatch the applicants.

4. Professors Unemployment. If the cuts in educational budgets and the increase in tuition fees continue, many universities may not be able to afford to pay their staffs and professors’ wages. Unpaid professors will not find a good reason to remain at the universities. They may join the unemployed population of the nation or try other occupations to secure their living costs.

5. Revival of Retired Professors. By the increase of educational costs, those students who are busy with final phases of their studies may prefer to receive cheaper help. So they may refer to those instructors and professors who have been retired in recent years in order to finalize their thesis or projects through their advice and guidance. By increasing the number of these students, the professors feel a sense of revival and this brings them to the field of higher education again. They may arrange private classes at their homes or colleges.

6. Home-based Higher Education. Financial limitations may lead a number of students to leave the universities against their will and continue their education at home in an informal manner. Home-based education will embrace a set of unique and new characteristics such as home-made syllabuses copied by the students from what they have found at their universities or colleges curriculums. Informal higher education becomes a new trend in the field of self-education and experience in performing related jobs (effectively) becomes a criterion instead of receiving and showing conventional certificates.

7. New Text-book Stores & Clubs. After occurring a meaningful fall in the number of students (because of tuition fees rise), publishers of academic text-books will have difficulties in selling their products. They may have to offer their text-books in new markets established by opportunist dealers who can find potential buyers. New text-book stores and cubs will appear including the online ones who may sell text-books with different percentages off the actual price. They will have to charm the prices and thereby drop the quality of papers and inks they use in publishing the books.

8. Fake Certificates. Before the increase of tuition fees some institutions were offering fake academic certificates to customers around the globe. This (unethical) service may find new clients and the copiers may be encouraged to improve the quality of certificates they produce. New measures may be required to distinguish the real academic documents from the fake ones.

9. Increase in Crimes. Youth are always more likely than other age cohorts for committing crime. When they become students, they are busy with their studies and find more little time to wander around the streets. Leaving the university because of financial problems, gives a young man/woman ample time to do everything he/she likes.

The universities should ask themselves: “how can we make our educational services as effective as possible?” not “how can we gain more tuition with current services”. No pain, no gain.