It is unfair to deny students financial aid - Research Paper Example

The cost of a higher education is an issue of great concern for most students and even their families as well (Goldberg 81-84).  Regardless of the financial situations of ones family, paying for a higher education requires a considerable commitment of ones resources for several years and the problem is made even worse if more than two children have been admitted into a college or a university. It may be surprising for some people to learn that a good number of full-time undergraduate students are incapable of paying the cost of their education without assisted financially.

 The problem here is even more intricate if the st This paper discusses the aspect of unfairness in the context of student financial aid. Specifically, the paper argues that is unfair to deny students financial aid. To clearly bring out the subject, the paper will detail circumstances leading to award or failure to grant student financial aid. If inflation is held as a constant to assess the real cost of tuition in relation to the real amount of federal aid, in public colleges and universities, it can easily be established that between 1990s and 2012, financial aid per student increased by about 200 percent (Ehrenberg 3-4).

In the same period, tuition rose by more than 260 percent. However, in private colleges and universities, the cost of tuition over the same period only increased by less than 170 percent. In fact, this seems like a rush by colleges to proof William Bennett’s theory right. . If really this is the case, then everybody who applies should be given some financial assistance to also cushion the ever increasing cost of tuition. Public colleges and universities have constantly maintained that traditionally, in economic difficulties, higher learning institutions record an increased enrollment.

Supporting their arguments, the enrollments of the 1980s, 1990s and the mid 2000s are used. According to their argument, at such a time, the rate of unemployment results in diminished tax revenues. This, therefore, means that there is a reduction in subsidies for public schools, and to mitigate the situation, tuition must be increased so that the same quality of education can be maintained. In reality, these are just excuses. This is because; such costs never come down even when there is not economic downturn.

Even though they are factors that contribute to ever increasing cost of tuition, available federal subsidies like student financial aid cannot be overlooked. This is because even private schools are affected by such economic conditions yet they have maintained their tuition increases at a much lower percentage than public schools. Therefore, it is easier to argue that the federal subsidies impact or contribute the extra percentage. This is because the only differentiating factor between private and public colleges is the federal subsidies in the form of student financial aid.

It is without a doubt that it is next to impracticality to make any system fair at least for every person, unfortunately, in the case of awarding financial aid, things are not fair at all. In most cases, when students are denied financial aid for the first time, some are allowed to file an appeal