Cutting Cost of College Education - Essay Example

Students join colleges to increase their chances of a better job. Moreover, enrolling in community colleges eases the burden of scheduling on the student as the programs are more flexible, as compared to regular colleges. Community colleges also have a reduced cost of tuition, as they charge a fraction of what regular colleges charge thus the debt incurred by students is low.

Another way of reducing the cost of a college education is allowing for dual enrollment programs where students do not have to go through all their classes in college. It also reduces the workload on the students by removing unnecessary requirements that only bloat their duties as students. This can be done by colleges cooperating with high schools in order to accumulate credits and higher placement in college. With this option, students will not have to go through the burden of classes as some of the courses will have been covered in high school. Joining college with early credits cuts costs by an enormous margin and advanced placement cuts the number of classes that one has to attend (Vedder et al. 8).

Furthermore, colleges can offer reduced time to students to complete their degree programs. This is by offering 3-year programs instead of four by streamlining the curriculum significantly (Vedder et al. 26). A reduced amount of time in completing a program can be done by offering online courses, summer sessions and taking increased credit hours per semester. As a result, students will end up saving their finances and time for other productive purposes. This is unlike having a 4-year program in which students pay dearly for each semester, and the cost at the end of the 4 years is enormous. In addition, eradicating unnecessary programs also cuts the cost of a college education by removing courses that bloat the curriculum. Cutting programs ensures more resources are allocated to the appropriate quarters and that they are not spent on programs that are not beneficial to the students and the institution (Vedder et al. 58). In this way, the budget is trimmed, and the most beneficial programs are retained for students to enroll in.

Academic research is on the rise and is conducted in excesses that dig deep into the budget of colleges. This is in a bid to publish scholarly articles and fulfill the secondary duties of a college professor, which is aside from instruction (Vedder et al. 86). Participating in research reduces an instructor’s focus on instruction, and instead on research, in turn, this weighs heavily on the finances of institutions and students. Instead, institutions should focus on the core business of a college and not on the secondary, which will bring down costs and losses that students incur by not receiving adequate attention.