Question about Hogwarts' tuition

[Steve]

No: HPFGUIDX 90600

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Patty Satjapot"
<cowardly_heroic at y...> wrote:
> ... I realized that I have never come across anywhere in the book
> where they mention tuition for Hogwarts .... ...edited... Hagrid spoke
> to Harry in the first book about his gold in Gringotts for purchasing 
> his equipment, but he didn't say anything about paying tuition. 
>
> If it's not mentioned in the books, did JKR mention it anywhere?
> 
> Patty

bboy_mn:

To my knowledge JKR has never specifically addressed this issue. I has
however been discussed here, and I will give you the short (hopefully)
version of my views.

I believe that Hogwarts is tuition free. 

Initially, the four founders of the school provided a large endowment
that was to be used to run the school. Most endowments like this,
whether in the real world or persumably the magic world, are invested
and as much as possible money from the return on investments is used
to pay daily operating expenses. It's seems reasonable to assume that
part of the job of Headmaster, as well as the Board of Governors, is
to manage the Hogwarts School Endowment.

I had it all calculated out once, but even a small endowment
compounded over 1,000 years at a very tiny percent of interest, added
up to a very substantial amount of money.

In addition, I believe the school is supported by donations from
Alumni, and other benefactors such as wealthy businessmen who need
well trained wizards as employees, inheritance from the estate of dead
alumni, etc.... This is very much the way many univesities and
colleges get a large potion of their funding today.

I also speculate that the Hogwarts Board of Governors are the twelve
people who have donated the most money to the school. Since the school
runs on their money, they are given some say in how it is operated and
how that money is managed. 

Some of these seats could be inherited. For example, if the estate of
a family gave an extremely large endowment to the school, then
subsequent generations would continue to hold that seat on the Board.
If a new benefactor came along, and donated a substantial amount, then
he would be allowed to take the place of the Board member whose
previous donations were the smallest.

Given Lucius Malfoy's inclination to give large donations to causes
and people who can provide him with power, prestige, and influence,
it's reasonable to assume a large donation bought him his seat on the
Board of Governors. 

As others pointed out, in slightly different words, Hogarts is a land
grand university, the land and buildings were donated to the school by
the founders, so that represents as substantial asset. Combine that
with a large cash endowment, and a history of reasonably honest
headmaster and governors, and the endowment could have increased
nicely to keep up with inflation as well as growing in relative value.

The largest routine expenses are probably food and staff salaries, and
while that's not exactly small, it wouldn't be a huge drain on their
resources, assuming they have substantial resources to start with.


Well, I certainly can't prove any of this, but it's not that far from
the way most colleges and universities receive money, so I think it
fits in very nicely with Hogwarts.

Just a thought.

bboy_mn