Throughout history, whether or not students should have free access to universities and colleges has always been an acrimonious issue in many societies. This essay is going to examine the benefits and drawbacks of the government paying tuition fees and elucidate why I personally believe that this approach has more negative impacts.  

The proponents of the idea that universities and colleges should be free point out that this wider access contributes to equality by encouraging increasing numbers of unprivileged students to receive higher education. If students from impoverished family backgrounds are granted with the chances to study academic knowledge and skills, they may be equipped to compete with their better-off counterparts in the job market and find a decent employment thereafter. This virtuous circle might help to lift the disadvantageous out of poverty and narrow the disparity between them and their better-off counterparts.

However, waiving tuition fees, which is a huge amount due to the high expenditure schools have for the services they provide to the increasing number of students, will definitely increase the financial burden for the government. This may be detrimental for other crucial sectors, including health care and public infrastructure to function.

In addition, if fees for tertiary education are eliminated a lot of students from better social-economic backgrounds may take it as granted to attend schools with careless attitudes as their standards of living have been already promised, making governmental funds a waste.

In conclusion, although a wider access of education is achieved by alleviating the cost of attending universities and colleges, the demerits of this approach still prevail in general since the deficit of governmental funds it may cause and students’ careless attitudes.