IELTS Writing Task 2 essay with model answer

You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. Write about the following topic

University education should be free to everyone, regardless of income. To what extent do you agree or disagree.

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

Write at least 250 words.

Model Answer:

One of the highly debatable issues today relates to whether college tuition costs should be funded by the Government, or should individual pupils finance their higher education. I strongly disagree with the idea of providing tertiary education at no cost. In this essay, I am going to shed some light on this topic and then give my opinion on the matter. 

First and foremost, from a social viewpoint, free education promotes equality between the rich and the poor. Pragmatically, everyone should have equal opportunity to study despite his or her wealth. With a university degree, poorer students are able to obtain better employment upon graduation. In this sense, university education can be seen as a precursor to improving  the quality of life. Moreover, without equal opportunity for college, people are not only discriminated by the level of income, but also separated by the level of intelligence.

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Secondly, there are many benefits of an educated workforce. From the financial perspective, a university graduate earns higher wages than those who did not go to college. With better wages, people are able to pay higher taxes. Initially, it may seem counter-intuitive for government to provide free university education for all; nevertheless, government could actually collect a higher amount of tax revenue in the long-term.

Finally, although I acknowledge that allowing university students to study for free has many advantages, such a statement is simply not feasible. It is unrealistic for the governments, especially those in developing countries to pay tuition fees for all enrolling students.

To conclude, I believe countries who can afford such policy should strongly embrace it. However, it is unlikely that all countries could afford such a pragmatic move.

Total Words: 283

Task Achievement: 8

Coherence & Cohesion: 8

Lexical resources: 8

Grammar: 8

Overall Score: Band 8.0