Nbailey's Debates: [clear]
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Winning Position: The state (i.e. government).
12
The state (i.e. government).
9
The individual student.
Welcome to the first Coursera Sociology 101 online debate! This week's topic is "Who bears the primary responsibility for funding institutions of higher education?". The two positions we will be arguing are:
The state (i.e. government) bears primary responsibility for funding institutions of higher education and ensuring access to it regardless of personal financial situation.
versus:
The primary responsibility for financing the costs of a higher education falls on the individual student and his or her family.
As these positions are not necessarily mutually exclusive (i.e. much of the western world uses a hybrid system where universities receive public funding but the individual student is also responsible for paying a portion of the cost out of pocket), we will define "primary responsibility" in this case to mean paying a super-majority of the costs, say 80% and above.
The rules are simple: the debate is open to all, and anyone may argue any position, or even contribute arguments to both sides. The CreateDebate format uses point / counterpoint posts, and users should attempt to follow this format. Your posts should be in a semi-formal style, citing as much information with links as is practical. The debate will be moderated and inappropriate or off-topic comments will be deleted.
This is an experiment, so let's have fun, practice our debating skills, and learn from each other!
PLEASE NOTE: I have created some "mock" arguments in order to show people how the site works. It allows you to write and argument for or against the original point, and then allows others to comment on your argument, either in support of it, against it, or asking for clarification. Once we get the debate going with some good posts, I'll delete the test posts. They are all marked (TEST).
Winning Position: I don't think so. People have
51
I don't think so. People have
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