Fee structure ethics in adult education program planning

Education

Planning Adult education programs is full of ethical dilemmas, simply because the needs and abilities of adult learners are often far different from other learners. One very difficult aspect of program planning is the fee structure. A programmer can be faced with offering programs that are extremely expensive for large sections of the student population, and many of those students are the students that would benefit most from the programs they offer. Do they reduce the fees, and the institution's profit margin to gain more students? Do they charge more for "big ticket" programs that can command higher prices, and then pass those savings on to the programs that are less affordable for many students? These are some of the fee-based ethical dilemmas programmers face, and how they deal with them indicates both their understanding of ethics and its role in adult educational programming.

If a programmer chooses to charge more for big-ticket programs, they are acting unethically, because essentially they are "taxing" the students who can afford to pay higher prices to subsidize programs for less affluent students. A better case scenario would be to lower the prices on the programs that are hard for students to afford, in an attempt to gain larger enrollments, thus fill the classes, and still make a profit. Another solution would be to offer scholarships or some sort of funding, through donations and grants, to help offset the costs for students who are less able to pay for certain programs.