This House believes university education should be free
Nearly every country in the developed world, and more and more in the developing world, provide free primary and secondary education. Such education is generally uncontroversial and accepted as necessary by both liberals and conservatives around the world. In the case of university education, however, there is a great deal of disparity between countries’ education policies.
disparity 차이
In many states students must pay fees to attend university, for which they may seek student loans or grants. Often states offer financial assistance to individuals who cannot afford to pay fees and lack other methods of payment. In other states, university education is completely free and considered a citizen’s right to attend. Debates center on the issues of whether there is in fact a right to university education, and on whether states can feasibly afford to finance such education.
center on ~의 중심에 있다. feasibly 현실적으로
[ Outline ]
[Definition]
University Education
1. Education in diverse studies. Ex) Social science, Arts, Engineering
Different from prior education. 1) More practical 2) Not mandatory at a national level
2. Preparation for future
Learning practical skills which are necessary for the future. Ex) PPT, Word, Report, Team project, managing own schedule
3. The most influential factor determining social movement in class
1) College Degree 2) Environment. Ex) 동기, Professor, Program, Atmosphere...
[Argument]
Tuition is against the equal chance.
1. Why is equal opportunity important?
2. Characteristics of university education
3. If we burden tuition (If not implement this policy) what is going to happen?
[ Writing (Elaboration) ]
First of all, let me explain what university education is and what characteristics university education has.
[Definition]
University Education
1. Education in diverse studies. Ex) Social science, Arts, Engineering
Different from prior education. 1) More practical 2) Not mandatory at a national level
The fundamental purpose of university education is, just like other educational institutions, providing knowledge on diverse subjects such as social science, literature, arts, physics and so forth. A distinguished feature, different from prior education is that it focuses more practical studies. Prior to university we just learn basic knowledge such as mathematical formula.
However, in university, we learn how to, let's say, make an engine of a car with the formula applying, which is much more practical. secondly what differs from prior education is university education is not mandatory. In other words, a student can choose whether they go to university or not.
2. Preparation for future
Learning practical skills which are necessary for the future. Ex) PPT, Word, Report, Team project, managing own schedule
Another characteristic is, as I said before right before, a university teaches much more practical skills than any other education. Students are required to learn how to deal with PPT, Word and perform many tasks as a team project. All of these things are necessary for whatever you will do in the future. Therefore a university gets students prepared for the future career.
3. The most influential factor affecting social movement in class
1) College Degree 2) Environment. Ex) 동기, Professor, Program, Atmosphere...
The most importantly, the university education is the strongest factor determining what social & economic class students will end up belonging, particularly in Korea. Whether you have a college degree or not highly determine who you can become, what company you will enter into and even with whom you will get married. This is because people have a belief that the better degree some have, the more competent he or she is in every aspect, whether it's true or not.
On top of a degree, environmental which you are exposed to also have a strong impact on movement in class. 동기, 선배, Professors, Club, Support system, all of these environments will inspire you, or discourage you. This is one of the reasons why every single student studies hard to go to a better university. What does it all mean in a word? What it comes down to is university education is the strongest opportunity affecting class movement.
[Argument]
Tuition is against the equal chance.
The first argument is the equal chance. Taking tuition from students is against the equal chance, fair competition. I will provide three level of analysis to prove the first argument.
1. Why is equal opportunity important?
First, what exactly does equal opportunity mean? It means everyone starts at the exact same starting point. More specifically, it means every individual is expected to get a result, exactly proportional to the amount of effort they put. If I put effort 100, then I deserve to get the result 100 corresponding to the effort. However, if you and your friend put the same amount of effort but the returned outcome is different, it is not the same opportunity.
It's not a fair competition because your friend gets more outcome even if you also put the same amount of effort. There are lots of social factors that hamper fair competition such as corruption, a Personal connection like 낙하산 and the most representative one is how wealthy your parents are. Everyone must agree on the idea that society must be as fair as possible, must improve in a direction that every social factor doesn't determine an individual's future except for individual effort itself.
2. Characteristics of university education
Of course, as I mentioned in the definition, university education is, obviously, the most important opportunity that affects an individual's future. Not only college degree itself but also advantageous environments have a great impact on how high class or how low class every individual will end up belonging to.
On top of the fact whether you go to university or not, with how good grade you graduate is also affecting your future class. Generally, the better grade you have, the higher class you are likely to go up to. The power of the university is too obvious that I don't even have to prove it. Both teams must not doubt it.
3. If we burden tuition (If not implement this policy) what is going to happen?
<Analysis 1 = Not fair>
Then what is currently happening under the present situation where tuition is taken from students or their parents. We have a serious problem in terms of fair competition as well as equality. As a matter of fact, university tuition is too expensive not only in Korean but also in America. Two stories are ongoing. First students whose parents are not wealthy enough to pay all tuition should pay on their own. Through what do they pay? Of course part time job no matter how many assignments they have.
Problem is that money student can learn through a part-time job is too insufficient in comparison with tuition. Therefore poor students are more likely to mess up their grades even if they live really hard and tough. Then because of the relatively low grade, they are more likely to end up lower class compared to other students who put the same effort in the same university. The worse case is student doesn't go to university in the first place or drop out in the middle of the semester simply because they don't have enough money. The same story will be ongoing. They will end up worse job, worse social class. It is completely unfair and unjust in a sense that poor students are likely to have less result with same effort than richer ones. This is not the society we want to live at all.
<Analysis 2= Polarization> (양극화)
Furthermore the poor will become poorer, the richer will become richer because of this mechanism. The reason why the equal opportunity is important is that it contributes to improving social mobility. As long as you work hard, study hard under equal chance society, you can become whatever you want in accordance with what you do. It will not only develop society but also just itself. But under status quo, because the money intervenes not only in entering into university but also how comfortably you can study there, as much as money has an impact, the rich become richer, the poor become poorer. In other words, polarization gets worse and worse. Therefore for fair competition, we should make a university education totally free.
