What Are the Benefits of Lower College Tuition Fees?

The benefits of lowering college tuition fees include the fact that higher education is often a standard job requirement in many fields, but also that lower tuition costs increase the accessibility of education, which in turn creates social mobility that is often beneficial to the economy. Despite the advantages of low cost or free higher education, few countries adopt this system due to its reliance on government or public funding.

Germany is one of the few countries in the world that provides free higher education. University fees were abolished in the early 1970s in West Germany, making a brief resurgence after the fall of the Berlin Wall in the 1990s (although none of the amendments to charge fees were ever implemented in Berlin or any East German states).

The German model relies on public funding to keep higher education free, although there is ongoing debate as to whether the education system should be government funded.

Publicly funded education is argued by some to be an advantage for a number of reasons. Firstly, the public is actively investing in the future of a country through enabling educational opportunities for people from all backgrounds. Additionally, public (or government) funds are normally paid back through the tax system once students have graduated and started work.