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Comment by python123 | Hacker News Reader

I pay thousands of dollars for tuition, and you don't. I earned my right to attend my school, and you didn't. I deserve access to my course material, and you don't. I would be so pissed if I went to MIT, and they just started giving things away like that.

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Interesting point. So you think students would be opposed to having their professors/universities give open access to educational content? I personally wouldn't care. The value in a college education isn't the notes or content alone, its the teacher/student interaction.

Also, other people aren't "attending" your school (taking up class spots), and they certainly aren't graduating with a degree. I have a comment regarding elitism, but I'm not interested in a debate and I appreciate your post.

For the most part though, tuition doesn't pay for curriculum in the sciences. For good professors, >100% of their salary is paid for by grants they bring in, not tuition. The tuition goes to pay for other things, like the school's bureaucracy, athletic facilities, extracurricular activities, gardening, janitorial staff, and subsidizing the humanities, all of which don't have much to do with developing science curricula.

Interestingly enough, a lot of universities do have the course material available on their websites. Eg, I learned most of my compiler module from Stanford course notes because they were better than my own lecturers ones.

But I get what you're saying and imagine this is why not all universities do this. If everything were free, they may not get so many people paying for it.

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