Education is necessary for every human being, not only for men but also for women. It is a woman who gives birth, raises, educates and rears amazing children (without ruling out the role of every father) also, it is a woman who is behind a successful husband.
Prophet Muhammad (SAW) said, “Seeking knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim.” (Ibn ‘Adiyy, Al-Bayhaqi, & Al-Tabarani).
Education will develop our logical and rational thinking. It is one of the important ways to get better jobs, more opportunities, more respect, and it therefore enables Muslim women to be better able to contribute to their societies.
Abu Umamah (RA) said, Muhammad Rasulullah (SAW) stated, “The advantages of a knowledge person from a worshiper (without knowledge), like the advantages of me from the lowest among all of you.” (Hadith narrated by Tirmidhi).
If we believe that education is important and we want to continue our studies or send our children for further studies, we should consider education investment. It is never too early to think about education investment even if we or our children still have 3 or more years to go before entering College/University. We also have to study how much its Return on Investment (ROI) or estimated job earnings we will get depending upon the subject we or our children select. The ROI is estimated from the total cost to study and alumni earnings and the school which provides the biggest ROI depends upon the kind of work that provides higher salary. Each country has a different standard salary for each job type.
Investment or cost of education increases from year to year so we have to calculate our abilities to pay the school fees until the end, especially when the education fees are not covered by the company where we work. How many more years will we or our children go to the University? Similarly, this can be calculated based upon how much the approximate cost is per year at the time we or our child enroll and may vary from year to year.
The cost of the University in the UK, for example, could reach £9,000-£13,000 per year. If we assume tuition in 2017 will be £11,000 per year with living cost around £8,000 per year, then you need to provide funding of £19,000 per year or £57,000 within three years.
Another assumption for the U.S. could be that the cost of tuition per year in 2017 will be, let’s say is $42,000, room and board $17,000, health insurance $3.500 (if it is obligatory), books and supplies $1,800, personal expenses $4000, local transportation $1,800 so the total student budget for the first year could amount to $70,100. The second year, assuming the cost of books and supplies is reduced to $1,600, the total cost of tuition will be at $69.900. The third year tuition fee is assumed to be reduced to $21,000 and does not require books and suppliers any longer or there is 0 cost, then the total cost of tuition for year 3 could amount to $47.300. The 3-year total cost of tuition for your child would be $187,300.
Although education costs seem expensive the benefits that we will get later will never be replaced.
Each University or institution outside the University usually provides a scheme of funding such as:
- Installment in tuition payment
- Opportunity to work at the University
- Scholarship from the University that can be applied for at or outside the University
- Financial aid from the company where you work or from other sources.
Pay attention and read carefully the regulatory requirements of such funding assistance that is generally available on the University’s website.
It is important to note that not all students can meet those stringent requirements, while loans from banks that are not sharia requires payment of interest which is forbidden in Islam. Therefore you should look for an interest free loan either from the University that we or our child applies to or from an Islamic bank in our region, if available.
There are a few tips to be considered when selecting a major or College/University and managing our education investment:
- Select the best College/University based on our or our child’s interest. According to PayScale College Salary Report 2012-2013, if we relate between a major of study and its earning, the best majors (top 3) for making money are Petroleum Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, and Actuarial Mathematics.
- Consider the length of study. The longer the time the bigger the expense.
- Calculate the cost of living if we want to live or send our children abroad.
- Find schools and cities that welcome Muslims or Muslimahs.
- Part-time or long distance study can be one of the alternatives to reduce the cost of education.
When we have estimated the education investment such as the cost of tuition, cost of living, and other related fees vs ROI then we can prepare our budget and select scheme of funding to suit our abilities.
