Comparison of the Advantages and Disadvantages of Studying in the USA and Europe - Essay Example

? Costs of Undergraduate and Graduate Degrees to in the European Union versus costs to pursuing undergraduate/graduate degrees in the United States Name of the student Name of the course Name of the instructor Date Introduction: Taking education from reputed and recognized university is expensive for students and their parents. The fees of the universities have a discouraging affect on the students who are poor or belong to the middle class. In recent years, the fees of different universities have increased a lot across the globe and it is becoming difficult for the students to study in a reputed college or university. In countries, where education was not expensive, a major increase in the fees has been observed in the past few years. The example is Canada where the fee structure doubled in the last ten years. The fees of universities differ in terms of the courses, level of degree and between national or international students. Students take admission in the institutions where they are able to bear the fees because the cost of education varies from region to region. The international students are very particular in taking admission in those colleges or universities where they can afford the fees because most of these students take financial aids from the bank or funded by themselves. The international students have to show their financial balance sheet in order to take admission in a good university and they have to prove from their balance sheet that they can afford all the expenses in the first year of their education. If they are not able to meet these requirements, then they are not eligible to apply for student’s visa. In the universities of USA, it is comparatively easy to get admission because of the facility of university funding but in UK and other European countries, it is relatively difficult to take admission. The students in order apply in universities of Europe fulfill more complexed requirements and formalities and because of variation in the education cost, these universities deal with two aspects that include the cost of tuition and living expense. The purpose of this study is to compare the cost of educational degree in USA and European Union and compare which region is more suitable to study for students. Higher education differs from university to university and it is not sure that how college experience of student is going to be. In each university, there are different rules and regulations that students have to follow to compete with the social standard and reputation of university. There are some obvious similarities between the colleges and universities of the United States and the European countries. The standards of the United States universities are different from the standards of the European institutes and there is a cultural difference in both regions and this difference reflect in their system of education (Sheng 2012). Education in European Countries: In the 2020 Strategy of Europe, the European Council has made a structure of Union to gather all the instruments that include expansion of jobs and high growth. The main target of the European Union in this strategy is to increase the education level and all the members of the European Union must fulfill the education requirements that council have made. The economic research recently conducted reveals that in order to achieve the goals and meet the future objective of European Union, measures should be taken to improve the education in the region. The European Union has developed human capital policy because it is recognizing the significance of giving education to the people. The basic motive of the European Union to educate its citizen is that union understands upcoming requirements of education and more skills needed from people to compete in future. The cost of degree in universities of Europe is relatively low but top ten universities are planning to increase the fee structure of students and they are trying to increase the fees up to ?4,000 this year. However, they are certain requirement that these universities have to fulfill in order to increase the fees. They have to subsidize students who cannot afford their educational fees. The English universities which are growing rapidly are planning to increase their education fees up to ?9,000 and this is maximum fees that they can charge. If these universities are able to increase their fees, than there is a possibility that government will not grant any funds to these universities and can reduce the places number on degree courses. It is also expected that all the colleges and universities in UK are planning to charge a fee of more than ?6,000, which will be difficult for the students to pay. The universities that have recently announced their tuition fees structure are: The University of West London announced that standard fees will be charged by university and that will be ?7,500 for a graduate degree. The students taking admission in art courses for specialization have to pay ?7,700 and those students wanting to specialize in music will be paying ?8,200 to university. Some good reputed universities including LSE have decided not to charge maximum fees from their students. These universities have announced that a fee of ?8,500 will be charge from the students in year 2012. Although LSE comes in same group of Oxford and Cambridge but still it has taken this measure not to charge the maximum fees from students. The voting of Ministers held in December has allowed the university to increase their fee structure and for undergraduate degree program, the fees have increased from ?3,350 to ?6,000. The fees can be increased up to ?9,000 in outstanding cases and the ministers are assuming that different universities will charge different fees from students and average fee of university will be around ?7,500. In Europe, the government pay initial fee for the students and when student earn more than ?21,000 in a year, than they pays back the amount to government. The problem arise that with the increase of fee structure by university, the government will not be able to pay this huge amount upfront and this can create problem not only for government but, also for the students. Europeans are considered as high tax payers in current years and the EU is moving towards making reforms for higher education and going towards a system in which user is charged. The parliament of Austria is regularly debating on their educational systems and efforts are made to improve that system. Similarly, in Germany parliament session called to expel the legislation in which college students are exempted to pay tuition fees. The university in Belgium has started to charge a fee of €500 for both national and international students. The non European Union students are charged extra €500 euro for security. Holland and Italy are also charging fees €1000 to €1,500 euro and certain universities of Dutch are charging €5,000 for business administration and up to €8,000 euro as a tuition fees for graduates (Hanushek and Woessmann 2010). Following is the fee structure of some of the countries in European Union: United Kingdom: The maximum fees charged in UK for European Union student is ?3,145 in a year and this amount is increasing rapidly due to increase in inflation rate. The average tuition fee is about ?3,000 for local students and around ?10,000 for international students per year. Ireland: The average fee for international students in Ireland €12,000 and they have to pay additional €900 as a registration fee. Education in Ireland is relatively expense as compared to United Kingdom. France: More than 1.5 million students are studying in 82 different universities of France. All these universities are public and none of them charge tuition fee from students. Students taking admission for undergraduate degree pay only €165 for enrollment. The lecturers in these universities are government servants and students can only take admission if they live near to these universities. The universities do not have option to give admission to any student and this is the reason that there is no university of France in 40 top universities of the world. The tuition fees in France are no different for resident or nonresident student. The foreign students are selected based on their studies because of the policy made for improvement of quality of education in France. The students who are not motivated to study are not allowed to take admission in universities because most of international students want to take admission in order to get visa and to stay in France for personal reasons (Wallace 2003). Germany: The universities of Germany charge €1,000 per annum for both European and non-European students. In European countries including Germany, the students are used to come on streets and protest against different issues for change. The universities in the European Union need a lot of money and funding so that they can compete with education of United States. The reason that education in United States is better than European countries is that they spend more than 2% of their GDP in education and this is the highest spending amongst any country as far as education is concerned. The European universities are overcrowded, they are not proper arrangement in classrooms, and basic equipment that they use is not up to the mark (Hanushek and Woessmann 2010). The European Union recognized that universities needs more fund in order to improve the quality of education but problem arise due to high inflation rate that is recently growing rapidly and budgets assigned to universities are already overburdened due to low tax revenues, increasing medical expenses, pension funds and many other reasons. This is the main reason that politicians want to increase the fee structure for the students but this can make education, unaffordable for students. According to recent report published by Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OCED) stated that due to global recession, the quality of education and specialized degree have become significantly important to decrease the issue of unemployment and job insecurity. It has become very important for the European Union to maintain the quality of education by investing a heavy amount in education sector. Most of European countries are facing problem of underfunding in education sector as compared to other sectors and this is main reason that quality of education in these countries is decreasing. European countries are not able to compete with the standard set by OECD and countries like Hungry, Greece, Portugal, and Slovenia expenses for education is less than standard set by OECD. Some countries like Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Sweden, and Austria are leading countries where large investment made for education and they are focusing on different educational levels. Following are top 10 universities of European Union and their annual fee structure: Colleges and Universities Tuition Fees University of Cambridge $14,000 - 16,000 University of Oxford $14,000 - 16,000 Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris $< 1,000 Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne $1,000 - 2,000 The University of Warwick $14,000 - 16,000 Technische Universitat Munchen $1,000 - 2,000 Trinity College Dublin $6,000 - 8,000 University of Geneva $1,000 - 2,000 Erasmus University Rotterdam $2,000 - 4,000 Universite Catholique de Louvain (UCL) $1,000 - 2,000 Source: (Guardian 2012) Education in USA: There are mainly two categories in the universities of United States. One is public universities that are supported and funded by the US government and other type is private sector that are owned by private investors and government do not give funding to these universities. International students studying in state schools have to pay tuition fees but that fee is low as compared to other private schools in United States. The quality of the US education is that whether fee is low or high, the quality of education in school, colleges, and universities remain same for all students. In the table given below, the average fees of private and state owned institution are given: Type of Universities Tuition Fees (U.S. Dollars) High Cost Private Institutions $ 25,000 Low Cost Private Institutions $ 15,000 High Cost State Institutions $ 20,000 Low Cost State Institutions $ 10,000 Source: (Guardian 2012) This tuition fee mentioned in above table varies from the level of university and depends on courses taken by students. The lowest tuition fee in state university can be as low as $5000 per annum and maximum it can reach up to $30,000 per year for a private university. The quality of education does not depend on fee structure; instead, it depends on name of university and facilities that universities provide to its students. The higher education in United States includes many prestigious and renowned institutes and the reason behind the success of these institutes is heavy funding by government and strong research practices. This is the basic reason that international students are particularly attracted towards universities of United States. Amongst top 45 universities of the world, 30 universities are in the United States. There are 4,495 registered institutes in United States that give degree to students in different programs. There are more than 115 institutes in each state of America and more than 20 million students are getting education in these institutes. Following are top ten universities of United States with their average annual fees: Colleges and Universities Tuition Fees New York University [private] $35,283 University of Southern California [private] $35,212 Harvard University [private] $31,456 Illinois Institute of Technology [private] $24,962 Grove City College (Pennsylvania) [private] $11,500 Bowling Green State University (Ohio) [public] $16,448 Purdue University (Indiana) [public] $21,962 University of Kansas [public] $16,800 Truman State University (Missouri) [public] $10,820 University of Alabama [public] $5,700 Source: (QS 2012) The colleges and universities of United States give quality education but problem arises due to high fees that these institutes are charging from students. For a good job, it is necessary to take at least bachelors degree but many student fail to take admission in reputed institutes because of their high cost. The tuition fees of colleges and universities are highest in history and still these institutes are trying to increase their fee structure. Comparison between European Union and United States Cost of Education: The cost of education in the United States is much high as compared to Europe and this is the reason that many emerging students in United States are opting to study in Europe rather than studying in their own country. The quality of education in the United States is considered higher in comparison with education of the European countries but students cannot bear high fees of institutes in the United States. The European students are constantly raising their voice against the high fee structure of their universities while the American students seeks good opportunity to take education from Europe as according to them it is a good value for money. The American students have to pay more than three times if they study in their own country. The annual fees in European Union has increased recently and reached up to ?9,000 per annum but still, American students have to pay less than half if they study in European institutes. Many institutes privately owned in United States charge at least ?20,000 to take degree in any field and if students want to take admission in prestigious universities such as Harvard, than they have to pay more than ?22,000 per year to get their desired university. The State owned universities are relatively inexpensive than private owned universities in America but they are not providing as much facilities to student as privately owned institutes are providing. Another advantage studying in European countries is that length of degree is small as compared to the United States institutes and students can get a normal degree in three years while in America, it can take up to four years to get that same degree. With all these issues in the United States, the students are getting attracted in European institutes and the number of application of American students to study in UK has increased up to 27% since last 5 years. More than 3,000 students are going from America to Europe for studies and their number is increasing each year. American experts have seen a trend that most parents in America are willing to send their children abroad because of low educational fees in other countries and they consider cheap education in order to save themselves from financial crises. An American student coming to United Kingdom is paying ?9,000 per annum for a degree in creative writing while he was paying ?25,000 for his studies in United States. According to that student, coming to London and studying is much cheaper than studying in United States. Another added advantage is that the period of degree is less that makes degree cheaper and students are able to pay their fees on their own, if they study in Europe. In United States, student’s choice to take admission depends on cost of degree and they spend years in high school hoping to get scholarship that can help them to pay their fees. Because of these problems in United States, more than ?15,000 American students are studying in Europe to take full time degree from different universities (Hotson 2011). The European universities are likely to become more similar to United States and they are constantly working to increase the educational level by focusing more on research rather than teaching. The government is planning to remove the cap on tuition fees of university that will help them to improve their quality of education and provide better facilities to the students. It is recommendation of professors in European Union that average fees of universities that is currently ?3,290 per year should be double to compete with education of United States. The higher education system in United Kingdom is becoming more similar with the US model of education and it is expected that in coming years, it will be same as the US educational model. The educational system in the US is straightforward in which colleges offering two-year education focuses to teach courses below degree level whereas four year institute offers degree and universities focuses primarily on research offering degree and post graduate courses to students. These three has individual significance and plays a vital in educational system of United States. The European Union and public sector gave more than ?14 billion to universities of United Kingdom and when standards of these universities is debated, the comparison is made on The-QS World University Ranking every year. The result of these ranking are more or less same since many years and universities are United States always remains on top according to these ranking. Out of top 20 universities, 13 belong to United States whereas British universities have four positions in these ranking. United States have always beaten the European universities and no university around the globe can challenge the quality of education of United States universities. However, there is a fact that United States is larger than many of European countries and budget assigned to these universities are much high than many of the universities in Europe. If United States is compared with United Kingdom, than the population of America is 311 million that is five times more than United Kingdom. The three to one lead of America in world ranking is not inspiring if compared with population and amount of funding given to American universities. In last seven years, United Kingdom has 20 top most universities of per head population (15.5 million per person) than US (23.9 million per head). When these countries compared economically, the GDP of United States is $14.68 trillion that is six times bigger than United Kingdom where GDP is $2.24 trillion. This way if education is compared then United Kingdom is better than United States and students are studying in better universities as compared to students of United States (WWEA 2010). The Americans spent a big proportion of its income in educational sector and more research conducted in America as compared to Europe. The European Union average to spend money in education is 1.3% and United Kingdom spends exactly same percentage that European Union has set. Whereas United States spends 3.1% in education and it is not possible for other countries to spend as much money as United States is spending on education. Therefore, America does not only have 6.5 times more resources than United Kingdom, but also it spends 2.4 times higher than United Kingdom in education sector. This way more than 15 times the United States spends money on higher education than any European country and this is the main reason that they are providing quality education with lot facilities to students. European Union has made plan to increase the level of universities to such an extent that it creates exceptional value for students. In France, different universities offers international universities the same value as they are giving to local students and undergraduate programs offered to them are less than $1,000 and postgraduate programs are offered $6800 or even less. Nowadays the British universities are also offering good value for international students and they are giving priority as it is given to local students. Cambridge University is offering its international students to take undergraduate degree that ranges from $18,000 to $20,000 and this amount is half as compared to Harvard University or MIT that are its closest rivals. In the most number of universities in top 100 ranking, United Kingdom is at second place after United States. In London based institute, the fees for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees have never exceeded more than ?24,000 to ?26,000 whereas in America, most of the universities take more fees than this figure (Hanushek and Woessmann 2010). Conclusion: It is concluded that taking education in United States is much more expensive than in European countries and students face a lot of difficulty in giving their tuition fee in America. Whereas in Europe, it is easy for students and their parents to bear educational expenses and they can get any degree according to their requirement. The biggest problem in United States is that students cannot take degree according to their interest and instead they consider cost while selecting any postgraduate or graduate course. The quality of education in United States is better than universities in European Union and they are far better equipped as compared to European universities. It is observe that cost of taking degree in United States is more than double and period of taking degree is long as well. The government of United States gives huge funding for the betterment of education in America while the European Union is not able to invest as big amount as United States is investing and this is the main reason that universities of the US are considered as one of the best in the world. BIBLIOGRAPHY Guardian. "Tuition fees 2012: what are the universities charging?" http://www.guardian.co.uk. 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/mar/25/higher-education-universityfunding (accessed March 15, 2012). 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"Cost of Education." http://www.wweaschools.com. 2010. http://www.wweaschools.com/TUITION%20FEES.html (accessed March 15, 2012). Read More