Tuition - Tuition Payment

Tuition Payment

Some methods students use to pay for the cost of tuition include:

• Scholarships
• Bursaries
• Grants
• Parents' money
• Student savings
• Government Student loans
• Financial institution loans
• Educational institution loans
• Company funding

Tuition is one of the costs of a post-secondary education in the U.S. The total cost of college in the U.S. is called the cost of attendance or the "sticker price" and in addition to tuition it can include room and board, travel expenses, books, fees, and other expenses such as computers.

Austria, Chile, the Netherlands, South Africa, the USA, and the UK all have “up-front tuition policies." These policies generally include a tuition fee that is large enough that it gives parents “a responsibility to cover some portion of their children’s higher education costs." The parental responsibility inherent to this type of tuition can make it difficult for a low-income student to attend college without help from some kind of financial aid from grants or loans.

Tuition changes at different rates from one type of institution to the next. Net tuition indices mark an increase in the “relative real burden” for payments at various types of institutions for higher education. In the period between 1980 and 1995, this burden increased by approximately 80 percent for students at public universities and by 148 percent for students at private universities.

Most students (and their families) who pay for tuition and other education costs don't have enough savings to pay in full while they are in school. Some students must work and/or borrow money to afford an education. In the U.S., student financial aid is available to defray the cost of a post-secondary education. Financial aid and tuition go hand in hand. “Financial aid is typically thought to exert the most influence in, when admitted students consider whether to enroll in a particular institution.” It is often the case that the lower the cost of the school, the more likely a student is to attend.

Developed countries have adopted a dual scheme for education: while basic (i.e. high-school) education is supported by taxes rather than tuition, higher education is usually given for fee or tuition.

People may purchase tuition insurance to protect themselves from fees related to involuntary withdrawal (for example, illness or death of a legal guardian).