50
A Study of Student Loans and
Arriving At the Ratio
In attempting to find this ratio for the allocation of costs, it is
important to refrain from making too minute divisions. Classifying the
aims or motives of higher education into three major divisions should
enable us to arrive at the part of the total cost the Student should bear
and then to develop a policy of Student financing that will help him to
meet these needs.
The Present Situation
The present Situation in the allocation of costs may be represented
as in Diagram I. It may be seen that the individual is furnishing slightly
more than one-fourth of the total cost of maintaining higher education,
or approximately $100,000,000. Society, on the other hand, is furnishing
less than one-third of the total cost, about $135,000,000; and philanthropy
contributes nearly one-half of the total amount, or approximately $200,-000,000.
In Diagram I, which represents the total field of higher educational
finance, it may be further observed that the three main purposes or aims
for which higher education exists are represented as equal, each receiving
one-third of the total financial support which goes to this branch
of learning. This is but a rough estimate and would, no doubt, be modified
considerably if it were possible to secure accurate data on the matter.
However, such estimates are of Service as a basis for further thought and
study.
The line XY divides the field of higher educational finance into two
parts, one of which is given to the dissemination of learning and the other
to the advancement of learning, as the diagram indicates. This constitutes
the fourth plane from the standpoint of the diagram. The first,
is the total field of higher educational finance; the second, the same
divided into its sources of support; the third, the field again divided into
the purposes or aims toward which the expenditures are made; and the
fourth, divides the field again into two parts, one of which is for the dissemination
of learning and the other for the advancement of learning.
It may be observed that no account is taken at present of the difference
in relationship as between purpose and support of higher education.
Purposes or aims have no influence on cost (in most institutions) and
there is no distinction made as to how much should be expended in the
dissemination of learning and how much on the advancement of learning.
Money is being spent for both, but without any definite plan based on an
intelligent estimation of what share of the available funds each should
receive and to what fields of learning these funds should be applied. In
