COMPETENCIAS

FINAL EXAM
2020-II
FACULTAD DE HUMANIDADES
DEPARTAMENTO DE LENGUAS

Writing Section

Name: Julio César Piñeros Castro Points: 13 Time: 7 - 9 am

Write a coherent and cohesive opinion essay of not more than 350 words referring to the
following statement:

In many countries today, increasing numbers of young people study at university.

Students, who will probably earn higher-than-average salaries after graduating,
should pay for their own higher education, rather than the State.

Give your text a title.

Distribution of points: complex grammar structures: 3, formal vocabulary: 2, cohesion: 3,
coherence: 2, punctuation: 1, task fulfilment: 1, title: 1.

Salaries versus Fees

People consider higher education as a possibility to improve their social, economic, and
intellectual life nowadays. Hence, they aim for accessing the best universities and to their
best Ph.D. and master programs. However, University fees are generally higher than
bachelor students’ salaries, therefore, many people lose the opportunity to get accepted
owing to their income, even if they opt to request a student loan, therefore, the State must
pay for student’s higher education.

The majority of people access to private universities; hence, fees are higher than in public
education. The fact that people pay higher fees means that they are likely to request
student loans that either they will not be able to pay for, or they will eventually drop out of
their studies because of the debt. Nevertheless, if the State covers the cost, students will
have more viability to continue throughout the program and finish it. For instance, in
Colombia, the ICETEX loans for postgraduate degrees, but the installments are generally
too expensive to pay monthly, so students cease their studies, or they alternate work and
study which provokes difficulties regarding academic efficiency.

On the contrary, if students choose public universities, the fees will be lower than in private
education; thus, the possibility of a loan is almost non-existed. However, public university
is subsidized by the State. Therefore, the State is actually paying higher education,
although to a little number of people. The problem is, then, that the State does not want to
provide education globally. For example, public universities in Colombia offer Ph.D. and
master’s degrees with low fees, but these universities face budget problems because the
State decrease the education budget year per year, so they admit fewer people than
private universities, reducing the opportunity to get access to free education.

To conclude, the State must pay for students’ higher education because they have the
possibility to do it. They need to increase the Education budget in order to facilitate access
to higher education, without debts that double the salary or people that drop out because
they can afford their own education.