Some nations have public educative systems, and college education is free of charge for every habitant. The main benefits of these are higher rates of professionals and a more civilized population; however, the key drawbacks are dependency on the government budget, and lower education quality.
Populations benefiting from a gratuitous university education tend to report a high number of graduates. This is because students do not need to worry about college tuition that is unaffordable for most families, particularly in underdeveloped countries. Furthermore, civilizations with people with a higher number of professionals tend to be more developed. That is to say, individuals with a college degree are prone to be better citizens overall than those who only have a basic education. For example, in Norway, around 80% of the population has a university degree, and they are considered one of the top-safest societies with the lowest crime rates in the world.
However, free education completely relies on the government’s annual budget. This means that the public educational system is sustained by people’s taxes. So, if a national or global economic problem comes up, like a recession or diversion of resources, universities suffer budget cuts that can impact the student’s education. Moreover, professionals who graduated from public universities tend to be the worst, and the reason for this is that their education can be affected by bad teachers, outdated programs, and bad facilities. For example, the National Autonomous University of Mexico documented a graduate unemployment rate of 40% in 2023, and the main reason given was insufficient student preparation.
To conclude, free college programs can help to increase the number of people with university degrees and, thus, the society’s educational level; however, public colleges depend on money from the state, which is not always enough, which can compromise the pupil’s preparedness.