Tuition payments

Tuition payments, usually known as tuition in American English and as tuition fees in Commonwealth English, are fees charged for instruction during higher education.

Tuition payments are charged by educational institutions in some countries to assist with funding of staff and faculty, course offerings, lab equipment, computer systems, libraries, facility upkeep and to provide a comfortable student learning experience. In most countries, especially non-English-speaking countries, there are no or only nominal tuition fees for all forms of education, including university and other higher education.

Payment methods

Some of the methods used to pay for tuition include:

By location

Countries such as Chile, the Netherlands, South Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom have “up-front tuition policies." These policies generally include a tuition fee that is large enough to give parents and/or guardians "a responsibility to cover some portion of their children’s higher education costs." This responsibility can make it difficult for a low-income student to attend college without requiring a grant or one or more loans.