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5. The Responsibility of Students

The belief that students should pay at least some of the cost of their education has declined somewhat.

In these surveys, we presented our respondents with the claim that students appreciate their college education only when they personally pay for part of the costs (see table 9). Typically we have found strong support for this view. In our previous surveys, the percentage of people who strongly or somewhat supported this view was always well above 70%. While the percentage of people who agree with this sentiment is still high, it has dropped to 69% in 2003, its lowest level throughout the 10-year period.

Table Nine

	General Public
Students appreciate the value of a college education only when they have some personal responsibility for paying what it costs.	2003 (n=801) %	2000 (n=1,015) %	1998 (n=700) %	1993 (n=502) %
Net Agree	69	74	77	76
Strongly agree	40	47	48	48
Somewhat agree	29	27	29	28
Net Disagree	29	25	21	18
Somewhat disagree	19	16	13	10
Strongly disagree	10	8	8	8

It is, of course, impossible to say exactly what accounts for this change. Concerns about access seem to be the more pressing issue on people's minds when it comes to higher education, so the worry about whether students will be making a contribution may seem less important to some. Some people may also be thinking that students themselves have less money, and may be less able to make a contribution.

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© 2004 The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education