Differences Between Aided and Unaided Colleges: There has been a lot of developments in the education sector lately. One of such developments is the introduction of different types of educational institutions. On the college level, there are numerous kinds of colleges available now: from government to self- financing, aided to unaided colleges, different college types abound.
The advent of globalization has been identified as one of the major contributing factors to the domination of the education sphere by aided and unaided colleges. There are many differences between aided and unaided colleges. Aided colleges are public institutions funded and by the government of the country where they are located in. On the other hand, unaided, or private universities have no government involvement in their management and financing.
In unaided colleges, the remuneration of members of staff such as professors and other professionals of the institution is managed by the school management, however, in the aided ones, such functions are performed by government agencies or channels tasked with such special duties.
Keep reading to find out other characteristics that distinguish aided colleges from their unaided counterparts.
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What are Aided Colleges?
Colleges that are supported by the government, either by way of financial aids, grants or scholarships are called “aided” colleges or schools. Aided colleges receive funds from the local government authority. These funds are used for both economical purposes such as improving the infrastructure of the school, paying salaries of staff, purchasing learning materials and equipment. They also enjoy other kinds of support like advance tuitions which is aimed at easing the academic burdens of students in these colleges.
These colleges receive funds from the government through different channels and forms.
Some of the ways they get these aids include: grants for academic activity, financial support for infrastructural development, maintenance funding and other special needs like provision of potable water for schools located in very remote areas where such basic amenities are not readily available.
When it comes to school fees, aided colleges are mandated by law to ensure that the fees paid by students are at a predetermined level.
This means that fees at aided colleges are usually affordable, while students at the unaided colleges may be paying quite expensive fees.
The aided colleges are institutions managed by the government through its special agencies. Therefore, all the members of staff such as teachers and professionals are paid salaries by the government with taxpayer’s money. They also enjoy protection from despotic school administrators as they have job security.
They cannot be layed off or fired anyhow for trivial or irrelevant reasons such as criticizing the management or getting in a quarrel with a colleague.
Bureaucracy and respect for hierarchical authority and position is highly valued in aided colleges. The junior officials in aided colleges are answerable to their superiors. They are expected to follow the procedure and rules set out for them and incapable of taking any radical decision without permission from the top.
Candidates for employment in these colleges are selected based on merit. Additionally, the standard qualifications expected of each applicant for the position of a teacher or other offices whether academic or otherwise are fixed by the government. These requirements serve as a filter to sieve out those who are not fit for the job even before they send in their applications.
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What are Unaided Colleges?
Unaided colleges are the opposite of aided institutions. They are a special kind of educational institution in that they raise their funds by themselves.
Sources of funds for unaided colleges include: external sources, which could be private firms or establishments. These funds are utilized for the advancement of the academic activities of the college as well as its infrastructural development amongst other needs that the institution may have.
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Differences Between Aided and Unaided Colleges
1. Funding: This is one of the marked differences between aided and unaided colleges. It is impossible to talk about the discrepancies between aided and unaided colleges without discussing how differently they source their funds. While aided colleges get financial and other forms of aid or support from the government, unaided colleges do not enjoy any unsolicited aid from the government of the area where they are located.
Unaided colleges, unlike their aided counterparts have no guaranteed sourve of funding and the funds they are able to independently come up with is used to cater for the needs of the institution starting from the most pressing to the least in the chain of priority. Aided colleges receive funds every year from the annual budget of the government which has decided exactly how much the school will get and how such monies will be disbursed and utilized.
2. School Fees: The fee structure of colleges is a great distinction marker, telling apart one type of college from the other. You can tell which college is aided and which is not by the amount of school fees paid by the students and how they pay it.
While unaided colleges charge high fees, the aided colleges only require a usually affordable and reasonable token as stipulated by the government. The sometimes exorbitant fees required of students and their parents by unaided college can pose a hindrance to the academic dreams of students who are from not-so-bouyant backgrounds. The reason for the high rates of school fees in unaided colleges is because there are no restrictions set by the government on how much these schools can charge.
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3. Remuneration of Staff: Usually, it is the government that oversees the remuneration of members of staff such as professors and lecturers, as well as nonacademic staff of the aided colleges. For unaided colleges, it is the school management that employs and pays salaries of the members of staff in these colleges.
Moreover, the teachers in aided colleges are more assured of the security of their jobs as they are employees of the government unlike their counterparts in the unaided colleges.
4. Autonomy: When it comes to autonomy, unaided colleges enjoy wider autonomy when put side by side with aided colleges. The reason for this discrepancy is because the unaided colleges do not have any liability, unlike the aided ones.
Even though unaided colleges are run by private bodies, they still enjoy more freedom than aided colleges. They have little or no liability and are not answerable to the government. This has some unfavourable effects such as teachers feeding fat from the exhorbitant school fees paid by students in these schools. The school management is in total control of the recruitment procedure.
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5. Promotion of Staff: The promotion of a lecturer or other members of staff in an aided college is usually decided by the ministry of education. This makes for some form of uniformity in this area.
In unaided colleges, members of staff are remunerated and paid according to the terms of the agreement between such member of staff and and the college administration.
6. Management and Quality of Education: Due to the fact that the government provides the funding for aided colleges, it is also in charge of the management of these schools. Certain managerial decisions such as the fees to be paid in the aided colleges are determined by the government. This is to ensure that the fees are within reasonable boundaries and affordable by the populace for whom the government wants to provide quality education at minimal cost.
With unaided schools, it is a different story altogether. The regulations on how much and how students are to pay their fees are subject to radical amendments. Unaided colleges are known to provide more sophisticated educational facilities compared to aided schools.
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7. Admission System: The criteria for admission into aided colleges are either merit-based or management-based. These criteria are established by the government who funds these institutions.
In unaided colleges, however, the process is a lot less defined. There may or may not be an interview as part of the screening process. You can influence your child’s chances of getting into these schools as the rules can always be bent to your favour. The selection process in an unaided college is set by the management themselves and while there has been some reported cases of unfairness in the process, most unaided colleges try to admit students on a meritorious basis.
8. Staff Recruitment: Aided colleges are supervised in many ways by the government even to the point of recruitment of new staff. Government sets the requirements for the basic qualifications for employment into each available position. These hiring criteria are usually in sync with the values of the government administration.
Unaided colleges on the other hand, depend on their own hiring criteria and are arbitrary in their selection requirements.
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9. Goals: The end goals and aims of aided and unaided colleges are as distinct as day is from night. They both operate in different ways and for different reasons.
Aided colleges being managed by the government looks to provide affordable yet quality education to the children of the area. Social welfare is their goal.
Autonomous unaided institutions, as much as they preach quality education as their aim, are actually profit-making organizations set out to maximize profit by providing educational services.
10. Treatment of Staff: The professors, lecturers and other professionals both academic and non-academic working in an aided college enjoy uncommon protection in form of job security from the government. There are also other incentives that are accruable to them in the line of their work.
For unaided colleges, members of staff are paid way better from the high school fees of the students but they may not enjoy job security and other privileges of working in an aided college.
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Conclusion
Over the years, different types of schools have risen up in the educational sphere. Gone are the days when every school was the same. Now we have private schools, public schools, aided and unaided schools. The disparity in these educational institutions are visible in the sources of funding, fees, facilities and administration. While you can easily get into aided colleges if you have the right papers and pass the standard requirements, you may need some more papers and a little influence if you are keen on getting into the unaided ones. The information in this article is just what you need to know what makes aided colleges distinct from unaided colleges and help you make an informed and smart choice of which one to enroll at.
Edeh Samuel Chukwuemeka, ACMC, is a lawyer and a certified mediator/conciliator in Nigeria. He is also a developer with knowledge in various programming languages. Samuel is determined to leverage his skills in technology, SEO, and legal practice to revolutionize the legal profession worldwide by creating web and mobile applications that simplify legal research. Sam is also passionate about educating and providing valuable information to people.