Paying for University Education is Key to Improving its Quality

AN OPEN LETTER TO SCOTTISH STUDENTS: Dear Scottish students, Let me try to persuade you that university should not be free.

I understand the counter-arguments: the historical right to a free education for all; that nobody should have to pay to access the most inspiring ideas of humanity's finest minds; the desire to differentiate Scotland from England. I get it. But surely that is only half the story.

Allow me to offer some of the counter-arguments: firstly, only the well-off should pay. Scotland has 32,000 pupils at 70 private and independent schools, paying an average of £8,000 per pupil. The most expensive schools charge £23,000. Those fees are being paid by parents who want to pay for their children's education. Why should they, and others who can afford it, not also pay to improve higher education for all? That would be a progressive measure. Like in England, students from any income level would be able to go to university. But those from families who could afford it would help to pay for it.

The second reason relates to global trends. Because of rising incomes and falling travel costs, education is internationalising. And universities themselves are now competing globally. Whereas, for example, St Andrews would have once worried about its standing compared to Oxford or Manchester, it must now worry about its standing compared to Yale or the University of Tokyo.

I doubt you want to work hard for four years, only to be rejected for a job in favour of a similarly qualified applicant from a foreign university regarded as "better" than your Scottish one. So you should not just worry about whether higher education is free. You should also worry about how good your university is on an international scale.

It is in your interest not just to go to university, but to have the chance to go to one which will impress employers who see CVs from all around the world.

If so, the next question is: what makes universities good? Of course, it's good facilities, good teachers, good research academics, and good organisation. But in the long term, what makes universities good is having enough money to pay for better facilities, better teachers and research academics, and better administrators.

That money can come from the state, like it does in continental Europe, or from endowments, as with the majority of American universities' funding. But compare the results. Continental Europe's universities may be free, but they're also inferior.

More European students want to study in the States than the other way round. Most of the top universities in the world are there. And American universities have between two and five times as much to spend per student as European universities, which means smaller classes, better teachers and higher-quality research.

Although Scottish universities have traditionally punched above their weight, especially at research, they are stuck with the continental European model — they can only get money from the taxpayer.

Even the National Union of Students accepts that students should contribute to the costs of keeping British universities great. Opposing student fees means opposing those who can afford it from paying to improve the system.

Ultimately, you need to worry less about the price of university, and more about its quality.

Azeem Ibrahim is a Research Scholar at the International Security Program, Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, a World Fellow at Yale University and the Chairman of ECM Holdings