There is no such thing as free higher education.

Picture from Gerd Altmann en Pixabay .

Hello to all members of the Hive community and Hive Learners. In this entry I am participating in the contest of week 46 - Issue 02 with the theme of FREE HIGHER EDUCATION.

In my country education is free up to the higher education level which here is called undergraduate. This means that you can choose to study in a school that is not free, but the free ones represent the majority. More than 90% of the budget comes from the State and the institutions have an almost non-existent production so they cannot self-manage their expenses which affects the quality of the services they offer to the students. Likewise, university students have various expenses that, if they cannot cover, can lead them to drop out or limit the number of courses they can take per academic period, thus delaying their graduation. In addition to basic expenses such as food, clothing, transportation and housing, university students must cover the cost of school supplies, access to specialized literature, computer, telephone, Internet access, among others, which represent an amount much higher than the average income of the minimum wage of a worker.

In this sense, legally it is possible to have a free higher education, but someone must always pay; in my country the State fails to provide the necessary budget and it is the students who cover with their own money the missing budget; as for the quality of studies; this varies according to the conditions of each person, the interest in the area of study and their ability to invest in their own education.

• Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)