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Nitish Mankani
Professor Laura Bandy
Rhetoric 105
17 August 2014
Is a Good Education Only for the Rich?
Education is a human right with immense power to transform. On its foundation rest the
cornerstones of freedom, democracy and sustainable human development.- Kofi Annan
Education is that one tool that helps build a nations foundation and strengthen its core
values by empowering its citizens and making them not only capable, but also giving them the
power of reason. However, this education now comes at a price, and it is alarmingly, quite
expensive.
For years now, education in The United States of America has been giving rise to a dark
side; a side that simply blemishes the very purpose of education: the cost of attaining it. High
tuition and living expenses and exorbitant costs of textbooks have in recent times, led to
prospective students backing out from attaining an education, which not only harms their future
and career goals but also the economy of this nation, which could be disastrous in the long run.
This urgent need to find out as to why education, such an important necessity in life, is out of
reach for some people, led to my question: If education is a necessity and not a luxury, then
why is it so expensive to attain an education?
As an international student at the University of Illinois, I have personally pondered over
this question numerous times. My parents have to pay around $55,000 a year on my education
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which makes me question the opportunity cost involved. Coming from a country where a
complete 4-year college education doesnt cost more than $10,000, I was forced to question
myself if this was worth it thereby, becoming one of the reasons as to why I chose this research
question.
The cost of college includes a variety of things. Establishing the fact that the tuition
costs are already a heavy burden on the students, another expense we cannot ignore is the cost of
textbooks and required software. This is a gray area in education. One of the initial sources that I
attained for this research paper was a bookstore receipt from a friend (Jefrin Palsetia, TIS
bookstore). The receipt was to the tune of about $117. This shows how much of a burden,
financially, one course can be in just one semester. These costs add up. Education is indeed an
investment that brings returns in life, but if a graduate starts off his/her career with a huge debt in
the negatives, it only makes matters worse. Attending college isnt enough, performing in college
is too and this is only possible if the students have feasible access to resources. The current trend
only discourages students that belong to lower income families from obtaining these resources.
In corroboration, an article in the New York Times (Knowledge is Priceless but text books are
not, Michelle Slatalla, August 30,2007 )
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, the average student is required to spend from about
$700 to $1000 dollars per year just on textbooks and another article in the New York Times
(How Students really buy books, Eric Weil, July 29, 2010)
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also goes on to say that students only
buy about 70% of the required books and some students dont even buy textbooks which would
conclusively hinder their performance in college. A very alarming stat from this article is that

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New York Times Article 1

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New York Times Article 2
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about 80% of students graduate with loan debt that averages about $36,501. This stat is very
alarming, for education now seems less of a right and more of a luxury.
To corroborate my readings and to further explore my research question, I interviewed a
student, (Jefrin Palsetia, interview, March 12, 2014)
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, who happens to be a sophomore, here at
the University of Illinois. When asked about how she funds her education, Jefrin, an international
student, said that she pays about 3 times as much as residential students and that she relies
heavily on her parents and students loans to fund her education. Jefrin also mentioned in the
interview that she spent an exorbitant amount on textbooks and software material which only
adds on to the existing burden of tuition and living costs. When asked about how useful those
expensive textbooks were, Jefrin said that she never really had to use her textbooks. This is
something I have noticed too on a personal level. Every student is given a list of books to
purchase, but as the semester progresses, we realize that we dont necessarily need these books
and they end up as useless expenditures. Jefrin said that she felt that she was completely
overpaying for all her books when there were cheaper alternatives in the market. When asked
about what her alternative options were, Jefrin said that she prefers using e-books and in some
cases, international editions of the same book, which work out to be a lot cheaper.
With an aim to get a better understanding of this issue at hand, and in search of a
comparison of costs associated with education over a course of time, I ventured into the
university archives. The assistant university archivist, upon request, helped me by handing out
relevant files and archival documents. Upon examination of these files
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(Faculty letter from the
Office of the President, Presidents Report on Tuition Policy and Tuition for 1974-75, No.243,

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Interview by Palsetia, Jefrin.
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December 12, 1973)
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, (Survey of General Tuition and Incidental Fees and Estimated Annual
Student Costs, 1971)
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, I noticed that the university which charged about $7.50 a semester in the
1800s went on to charge about $1300 for non-residents exactly a hundred years later which with
inflation accounts for a considerable increment, but can be justified. But what is rather shocking
now, is the dramatic increment in costs in the past 30-40 years. The University now charges
almost about $48000 a year for non-residential students and about $35000 a year for residential
students. Albeit inflation has affected the market, what is indeed shocking is the margin by
which it has affected the education sector. When compared to the 1970s, costs in every sector in
the economy have indeed inflated (about 200%-300%), but education costs have increased by
over 1120% (Daily finance, Bruce Watson, March 15, 2013)
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. From these statistics, we can
indeed conclude that tuition is rising faster than inflation is.

In a letter that was written by the then President of the University of Illinois, addressed to
the Faculty (Faculty letter, Office of the President 1974-1975). The President stated, First, the
resources available to the University are not keeping pace with the costs of inflation. Second,
increases in State tax support of higher education will not, in and of themselves, keep pace with
the increased need for resources. We can either revise downward our goals for the University
of Illinois or find the resources necessary to permit us to meet these goals. I believe that we must
choose the latter course. One financial resource is Tuition income
As we can see, the President mentions and further goes on to explain about how and why the
income from tuition must increase and as much as it would be against the interests to do so, to

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Archive file 1. U Illinois Archives
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Archive file 2. U Illinois Archives
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Statistics from dailyfinance.com
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accept reality, its something that needs to happen. Just as expected, that is exactly what
happened and the tuition costs sky rocketed, only increasing every successive year.
To get a better understanding of the situation on a personal level, I decided to conduct a
survey among my fellow undergraduate students here at the University of Illinois. Using the
services of the online portal surveymonkey.com
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, the results that I got were pretty astonishing.
73.91% of the students who took the survey were residential students, so we can safely assume
that they were eligible for scholarship and other resources. 80% of the students were not on a
scholarship. A surprising 30% of students were funding their education with student loans. These
students also acknowledged the fact that theyd have huge debts the moment they graduate.
Another observation in this scenario is that these students would not be on a fair starting level as
the other students. Not only do these students have to perform in college, but they also need to do
it with the looming fact that they would have an enormous debt to take care of upon graduation.
It is easy to say that everything in life cannot be fair, but I think education is that one sector that
should be made fair because it empowers the students and is a basic right and puts them on a
level playing field.
Moving on, a big 87% of the participants of the survey said that the cost of textbooks was not
justified, and of these about 48% percent said that they spend close to $400 every semester on
software material and textbooks. A surprising 9% of participants said that they spend close to
$600. What I found to be the most astonishing stat was that 92% of the participants of my survey
said that they had purchased textbooks that they did not even use. Considering the amount of
hard earned money spent, reading such a statistic can only give us an idea of how grave the
situation is today.

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Survey conducted through means of this website.
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After observing these problems and statistics that the education sector faces today, I
decided to see what both students and institutions were doing to reduce the implications of high
costs on them. Through the means of my survey, I noted that about 28% of the participants were
at the university on a scholarship. The number of scholarships handed out by universities has
increased over time, but so has the number of students attending college. Although a good
number of meritorious students have been given scholarships, its not uncommon that a good
number of equally deserving students get left behind because of the sheer amount of competition.
Nevertheless, with many scholarships, aid programs and on campus jobs, the university and other
federal bodies do try to make it easier for the students who need the aid thereby helping them
quite a bit if not the entire way.
To complement the aid that the university provides, some students try doing their bit to reduce
costs and ease the burden of costs associated with a college education.
I noted that some of the methods that students used to reduce costs included working part-time
and opting for e-books over hardcover textbooks. Also, an interesting observation was that some
students would get international editions of the required books from countries like India and
England, which reduces costs by a huge margin. A good 15% of students said that international
editions were what they resorted to, to save about $300 every semester.
Another solution that a huge number of students opted for was using torrents to download pdf
versions of textbooks, which is illegal here in the United States.
As the biggest economy and arguably the most advanced country in the world, the United
States needs to realize that the only way it can retain its number one position is to have a highly
educated population, especially in the STEM sector. It is debatable and my suggestion will
probably be shot down, but as some people do believe, the government must consider options
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like directing funds from military budgets and other areas towards education, because after all,
education is the root to all success and strenuous access to a great education would only be
detrimental to the country in the long run.

To answer the research question in perspective, with careful consideration of the primary
sources, the interviews, surveys and general observation, I would say that although it isnt
intended to be so, and despite the efforts of various organizations and the government, access to
a great college education in the United States of America is slowly moving towards favoring the
rich.










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Works Cited
1. Slatalla, Michelle. Knowledge Is Priceless but Textbooks Are Not. New York Times.
30 Aug. 2007. Web. 14 Mar. 2014. <
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/fashion/30Cyber.html?_r=1&>

2. Weil, Eric How Students Really Buy Books. New York Times.
29 Jul. 2010. Web. 14 Mar. 2014. <
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2010/07/25/the-real-cost-of-college-
textbooks/how-students-really-buy-textbooks>

3. Palsetia, Jefrin. Personal interview. 12 Mar. 2014

4. From the Ready Reference File (red folders):

Presidents Report on Tuition Policy and Tuition for 1974-75 (12/12/1973). University
Archives Reference File, 1963-, Record Series 35/3/65,[insert name of folder], University
of Illinois Archives.

5. From the Ready Reference File(red folders):

SURVEY OF THE GENERAL TUITION AND INCIDENTAL FEES AND
ESTIMATED ANNUAL STUDENT COSTS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN CAMPUS
(Initiated in 1971; in current running). University Archives Reference File, 1963-,
Record Series 35/3/65, [insert name of folder], University of Illinois Archives.

6. Watson, Bruce. The High Cost of Higher Education Explained in One Simple Graphic.
Daily Finance. 15 Mar. 2013. Web. 14 Mar. 2014 <
http://www.dailyfinance.com/on/college-costs-tuition-rising-student-debt-infographic/ >

7. University of Illinois student body. Internet Survey via surveymonkey.com 14 Mar. 2014