Re: "Tuition costs must be curbed," Aug. 25.
As a student, and later as a financial assistance officer, I saw the university serving three functions: teaching, research and community service.
At a very simple level, it could be said that the teaching function would be valued at one-third of the cost of operating a university. In those days, tuition covered less than 25 per cent of the operating costs, so again, at a very simple level, the students were getting a good deal. The difference was presumably being picked up by the public, which was benefiting from having many well-educated youth entering the workforce.
Particularly now that a university degree is no longer a virtual guarantee of finding a good job, I think we need to do better than this. I am not aware of any rigorous study being made of the actual cost to the university of providing the teaching students require. Would that be a good starting point for a discussion on tuition costs?
Bill Stewart
Parksville
