B2 – Upper Intermediate
Attending college or university to complete a four- year course costs a lot of money. Is it really worth the price? Considering the high cost of education and the job market that remains weak.
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Discussion Questions:
- Would you say that college or university education is affordable in your country?
- What degrees are top earners in your country?
- How’s the job market in your country these days?
- What alternatives does your country have if a person cannot afford to attend university?
14 replies on “Is a College Education Worth the Price?”
Would you say that college or university education is affordable in your country?
In my opinon, in general, we can say that attending a four year degree at public universities is affordable in Spain. In some cases, students must move outside from the city to a bigger city that many times is more expensive than their home town so they can feel a bit drought.
What degrees are top earners in your country?
As we are living a tech revolution with AI development and improvement, degrees which are related to IT are the top earners nowadays.
How’s the job market in your country these days?
In the last few years unemployment rate has decreased significantly but recently this decrease has smoothed.
What alternatives does your country have if a person cannot afford to attend university?
If a person has financial problems to attend university can apply for a scholarship or grant to the govern of the country even some times they can apply to their autonomous communities.
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1. Would you say that college or university education is affordable in your country?
In Spain you can choose between public and private universities. The public university is much cheaper than the private one, so normally a family with average income can afford to send their children to university. There is also the possibility, although complicated, to apply for a scholarship to study. Within the public universities there are those with more or less reputation. Private universities are usually much more expensive, although in recent years they have increased in number and there is the possibility of studying online which can be more beneficial and less expensive.
2. What degrees are top earners in your country?
In Spain, careers related to engineering and information technology are the leading careers and have the highest rate of employability.
3. How’s the job market in your country these days?
It depends on the sector and the economy of the country. Normally, IT and engineering jobs tend to have a lot of job offers with attractive salaries and good working conditions. For the rest of the professions there are usually not so many jobs offered and there is a great disparity of salaries depending on the career studied, in addition to requiring a master’s degree or having worked in a multinational.
4. What alternatives does your country have if a person cannot afford to attend university?
In Spain, although public universities are not very expensive and you can even get public scholarships (increasingly difficult), you can also opt for vocational training, both public and private that combines theory with practice and are in high demand in certain sectors
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1. It is very affordable, the fees for degrees in public universities are very cheap because they are financed by the goverment.
2. Some engineering degrees, like Computer Science, have a great earnings potential.
3. I am in the information technology market, and there is a lot of job positions. However, this is not the usual for other markets.
4. There are professional formation courses of 1 or 2 year, cheaper than university and focused toward learning a profession. Students of this courses find a related job more easily than someone without them.
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1. Would you say that college or university education is affordable in your country?
Yes, Its affordable and its a key to improve your possibilities in the future.
2. What degrees are top earners in your country?
I think that scientists degrees
3. How’s the job market in your country these days?
I can talk about sanitary degrees where I am, and I think that is rising and improving our expectatives
4. What alternatives does your country have if a person cannot afford to attend university?
I think that a good alternative could be: work dome years and save money.. and once you have the money, study and study hard
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I can talk about sanitary degrees where I am, and I think that is rising and improving our expectatives
I think that a good alternative could be: work dome years and save money.. and once you have the money, study and study hard
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1. Would you say college or university education is affordable in your country?
In Spain this kind of education is affordable but degrees become more expensive with masters and complementary education that is usually necessary to be a sought-after employee.
2. What titles earn the best income in your country?
The best titles in Spain are engineering, technology and medicine. Despite this, it is not easy to find qualified professionals in these sectors.
3. How is the labor market in your country these days?
I think the labor market in Spain is growing in some industries. The main problems are salaries that have been frozen for years, except for management positions.
4. What alternatives does your country have if a person cannot afford to attend university?
There are other alternatives to the traditional university; the distance university is one of them, cheaper. In addition, vocational training is a good option; it gives quickly access to enter the labour market and allows access to university in the future if the person wants.
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1. Would you say that college or university education is affordable in your country?
Depending on choosing the public or private education. Generally speaking, I think it’s affordable for most of the people.
2. What degrees are top earners in your country?
I believe that’s something similar to U.S. where technicians and scientists degrees are the top.
3. How’s the job market in your country these days?
I can talk overall about the technological market, which is rising since a few years ago.
4. What alternatives does your country have if a person cannot afford to attend university?.
That person could try to go to a public university for a small quantity of money.
Just continue trying to improve on writing your responses through this exercise. You are doing a good job so far.
This is how you can make this sentence slightly better:
Depending on choosing the public or private education.
About the question “is worth the price to study a degree in a university”, in my opinion, it depends on the type of university, if it is public or private. There is a huge difference in the cost of each type and at the end of the day, I am not quite sure about the return on the investment of a degree in a private university.
The problem in Spain is the big business created around the universities. The number of universities in Spain is enormous, to be exact 122. This fact comes from the thought that to be “someone” a your life, you need a degree. This has caused:
Firstly, that no matter the results you have in high school, you will have the opportunity to study a degree paying a big amount of money for that, instead of invest and improve the professional studies.
Secondly, that companies hire people with university degree to cover positions that are not required to be cover with this.
And Thirdly, currently the job market is full of people with university degree trying to differentiate of the rest with MBAs and languages.
In my opinion the degrees more demanded are business administration & finance and industrial engineering.
Considering that the average of a bachelor’s degree cost is approximately 6000 € in a public Spanish university and that Mathematics are essential in our society, I think that the degree i had in the university (Bachelor in Mathematics) absolutely worth the price. In my personal case, when i finished my studies i found a job very easily (as the 80% of my classmates). Also, In Spain the average wage of graduates in mathematics is higher than the national average wage.
The degrees that are top earners in Spain are:
1. Financial counselor
2. Radiologist
3. Judge
4. CEO
5. Plane pilot
In general, nowadays the job market in Spain is not quite good as some years ago because of the financial crisis and government laws that harm the employee (like one law that makes easily to fire an employee). The wages have been decreasing over last years too.