Higher education can be funded in several ways including the following three: 1. all costs are paid by the government. 2. all costs are paid by the students. 3. all costs are paid by the student using loans from the government that must be repaid after graduation. Discuss the benefits of each option. Which is the best one?
Sample Response
The rising cost of higher education is a significant issue facing governments around the world. There are three waysThree ways are there to fund higher education and each has its own merits. This essay willshall discuss the benefits of each method and identify the best one.
To begin with, if the government pays for higher education, itpays for higher education it would contribute to a prosperous and civilized society. It is true that human resources arehuman resource is of great importance to every nation. Investing in higher education, therefore, helps establish high-quality labor force with great expertise in the future. Moreover, it gives students from all walks of life anthe equal chance to further their education.
If the student has to cover the full cost of their tuitionfull fees of his tuition then naturally they would take their studies more seriouslyhe would be more serious in his study. The responsibility for obtainingThe onus of getting the full value from the money spent on higher educationfull value for money spent on higher education would be on the student and this would result in better graduates, whichbetter graduates which would benefit the nation as a whole.
The third option in which all costs are paid by the student using loans from the government that must be repaid after graduation is the best one in my opinion because even students from low-income backgroundsthe have-nots would have an equal opportunityget equal opportunity to pursueget higher education and since students would knowas the students would know they have to repay the loan after completing their educationthey have finished education, the universities would not be flooded with uncommitted studentsnon serious students.
To put it in a nutshell, I conclude thatI pen down saying that each of the above methods has its own benefitspros but the government-backed student-loan methodthe third method in which all costs are paid by the student using loans from the government that must be repaid after graduation is the best option.the best.
Why this response received Band 7.0
The response covers all three funding options, selects the loan model clearly, and organises the comparison in an easy-to-follow sequence. Its main limitation is that several benefits are asserted only briefly, while repetition of the task wording and some awkward collocations reduce precision. The highest-priority improvement is to extend each benefit with a concrete consequence or example and express the comparison in more natural language.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Response
All parts of the task are addressed with a clear choice, though the benefits are developed somewhat briefly.
Support each option with a specific example or fuller explanation of how its stated benefit would arise.
Coherence and Cohesion
The option-by-option paragraph structure creates clear progression and makes the argument easy to follow.
Shorten the third body sentence and avoid repeating the full wording of the loan option in the conclusion.
Lexical Resource
The response shows sufficient range for the topic, but awkward collocations and repeated prompt language limit precision.
Use more natural phrases for human capital, tuition costs, disadvantaged students, and academic commitment.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of simple and complex structures communicates meaning clearly, despite recurring article, agreement, and sentence-control weaknesses.
Review articles and conditional consistency, and split the long loan paragraph sentence into controlled clauses.
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IELTS Writing Task 2
Higher education can be funded in several ways including the following three: 1. all costs are paid by the government. 2. all costs are paid by the students. 3. all costs are paid by the student using loans from the government that must be repaid after graduation. Discuss the benefits of each option. Which is the best one?
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.