Essay from the year 2016 in the subject Pedagogy - Higher Education, grade: 3.80, Indiana University (College of Arts and Sciences - Education Department), course: EDUC-U215 Foundations for Undergraduate Success, language: English, abstract: This essay is premised on the supposition that many of the foundational disagreements on the role of higher education in American society can be synthesized into three major themes: whether college education is a privilege or right, whether college education is a predominantly public or private good, and who or what benefits the most from the traditional college education. This essay attempts to outline a coherent conception of education that encompasses three themes and ultimately concludes that education is most effectively and fully to be understood as a largely private privilege for the individual with potentially positive public externalities if of a particular type and distribution. Potential counterarguments and insight into the theoretical shortcomings of considering higher education a public right in its diversity are presented and expounded upon.