VIRTUAL EVENT: COVID-19 and the politics of tuition

The COVID-19 pandemic is shaking up the politics of educational participation and student tuition everywhere. When unemployment is high, the opportunity cost of enrolment in education is reduced, suggesting this is the best time to do a degree.

However, many do not see it that way because when students have less opportunities to work, they have less capacity to support themselves while studying.

This panel session will discuss whether the pandemic will reassert the role of higher education as a resource for social development and economic renewal or whether it will push towards higher tuition, increasing inequalities between those who can afford to invest and those who are excluded. 

In fee paying countries where the only option is online education, there is pressure to discount tuition charges, though institutional costs may not have fallen much. In high tuition countries enrolment could fall dramatically and students from lower income families will be worst affected.

In free education countries, given the state of public finances, graduate unemployment and the need to fund social and economic recovery, there will be renewed pressure from economic ministries to levy fees on local as well as international students.

Speakers

• Lorraine Dearden, Co-Investigator on CGHE’s social and economic impact of higher education research programme
• Brian Pusser, Associate Professor of Higher Education at the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia
• Dr. Jussi Välimaa, Professor in Educational Studies and Director of the Finnish Institute for Educational Research at the University of Jyväskylä

Links

• Centre for Global Higher Education
• Department of Education, Practice and Society

Image: Becca Tapert via Unsplash