Myths and heroes

Places and forms of power.

During the course we worked with the thematic of the higher education in UK and US, this thematic is in line with the notion places and forms of power which I’m going to define.

This notion can be defined in two different part, places can be a site, a school or anything which can be localized. Power is defined to a person, group, or nation having great influence or control over others and the ability or official capacity to exercise control, authority (The State, the government, and political organization). According to that notion, we will try to answer the following question: To what extent the degree in universities in UK or in US are instruments of power ?

In a first part we will talk about the rise of tuition fees and in a second part and last part we will see that this excess with tuition fees can be at the origin of disagreement between people.

First of all the tuition fees in college in United States and in United Kingdom are really high and not everyone can go to university or college.

Some people are burying on debt because of the incredible tuition fees in this two countries. If we look at the tuition fees evolution in the United Kingdom, they were free in 1998 and now they are between £10,000 and £12,000 (pound sterling) a year. It’s about the same situation in United state about $59,000 a year in Harvard, one of the best American universities. According to Barack Obama, 40% of adults above the age of 35 are stills paying off students loans.

This fact shows the power of degree, because have a degree is really important since it could help to earn a decent living, be more powerful, lead a happier life, so have a good job and eventually have more responsibilities. To get a chance to have a wonderful future students can have recourse to different solutions like a part-time job, get a grant even if it can be difficult, ask for a loan or ask them parents for some helps. Going abroad was also a solution before the Brexit for British students.

Secondly, This problem with tuition fees divide the society in two camp: some are for the tuitions fees and others are for the abolition of the tuitions fees, because they want scholarship to be free.

As we see in class when we studied an article from the Guardian which was named « For or against the rise of tuition fees ». They were Emily who was against tuitions fees because for her a degree now became a status symbol rather than a reflection of hard work and people will have the feeling to buy their degree. On the contrary, James is for the tuition fees for him it’s an investment for your future also that’s permit to produce some of the world’s foremost experts and to build brilliant universities. The tuition fees became quite polemical especially in the US where athletes can have a scholarship even if they don’t have great academic skills, worst than this some cannot read properly; because universities need them to win championships to get money. Tuitions fees became a financial power and that’s power creates a superiority relation for example kids from private school and kids from publics school will not be treat at the same way) difference in the perception of the capacity of learning and do the same things.

To conclude, we can say that tuitions

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