Massive pickets at my uni!

[Agathon]

It depends on how much of the student's funding package is covered by TA work. In some cases at U of T it was 100% which made tuition raises particularly bad.

OK - so in your scheme the TAs make only $10 an hour. How much are they supposed to work a week in order to feed and clothe themselves and their family if they have one (we're older than you - we have dependents in many cases)?

The way it works at U of T is roughly that fees are paid and you get about 14 grand a year to live on which is made up of grants and TA work. Hardly a huge sum, but enough to live on.

[Asher]

$10/hr with free tuition is MORE than reasonable.

There are things called student loans. Sometimes, students can use these loans to loan money which they pay off once they're out of school.

[KrazyHorse]

Asher, go ahead. Offer "10$ an hour" (hourly wages aren't offered, BTW; they're simply estimates. Stipend is the same no matter how many hours a week the course requires)

Nobody who's not desperate will go to your uni.

[KrazyHorse]

BTW, I charge 20$ an hour to tutor. Why should I take less from the uni?

[Asher]

Originally posted by Frogger
BTW, I charge 20$ an hour to tutor. Why should I take less from the uni?

It's $10/hour plus free tuition...that's $6000 (here) a year plus $10/hour. Seems fair to me.

Nearly double minimum wage and free tuition while working on campus.

[KrazyHorse]

From somebody with a BSc + some more education?

Don't be ridiculous. I can walk into a much higher paying job than that.

[Agathon]

Your scheme isn't economically feasible. For a start students will have racked up large loans as undergraduates and they will then be faced with 5 years additional loans. That's 9 years - nearly a fifth of one's working life spent accumulating debt.

Now such a person ends up with a PhD and is supposed to be able to earn enough money to pay all these loans off in no time (if they can even get them in the first place). Who is going to work at a university to teach the next lot of students with such a financial millstone around their neck - nobody - and if the university raises salaries to attract more teachers fees will skyrocket making the problem even worse. There will be a problem getting enough graduates if this is the case.

Paying TA's about 12-14,000 C$ a year and their fees is about right. It's not big money and it attracts good students to Canadian universities but doesn't break the bank.

Appealing to the market won't help because education is one of those areas in which positive externalities will lead to underproduction and inefficiency. There's a reason that universities are structured the way they are - it works.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Frogger
From somebody with a BSc + some more education?

Don't be ridiculous. I can walk into a much higher paying job than that.

Well, free tuition doesn't mean much to you in Quebec. Over here it's a big deal.

90% of the money I make goes straight into tuition...

[Asher]

Originally posted by Agathon
Your scheme isn't economically feasible. For a start students will have racked up large loans as undergraduates and they will then be faced with 5 years additional loans. That's 9 years - nearly a fifth of one's working life spent accumulating debt.

They're in f*cking graduate school, they can afford to pay it off 10-15 years down the road.

I'm also a bit surprised at your "5 years of additional loans" -- most grad students aren't doing 9 year Masters and PhDs...

[KrazyHorse]

Nobody does a Masters in physics.

[KrazyHorse]

They're in for 5 years to a Ph.D once they're accepted.