The Rise of Tuition Costs and Affordability : A Comparative Study between Public and Private Higher Education Institutions in Arusha, Tanzania

The main objective of this study was to examine tuition cost and affordability between public and private higher learning institutions in Tanzania. The research approach was quantitative in nature with the application of descriptive and inferential statistics for data analysis and interpretation. Multivariate analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to compare the results between private and public institutions. The results indicated that students agree that tuition fees and student loans were significant contributors toward tuition cost affordability. However, the public institutions were highly influenced by students loans compared to students from private institutions. Other factors such as institutional scholarships, government subsidies and family/personal income had mixed results. It was recommended that the government should intervene to make higher education affordable for all Tanzanians