> being self-taught (...) and being a student isn't the same thing. Are they not? If you're teaching yourself, you're by definition studying the subject matter

> being self-taught (...) and being a student isn't the same thing. Are they not? If you're teaching yourself, you're by definition studying the subject matter, hence you're a student. You're not a formal student but a student nonetheless. > why don't self-taught people have to pay tuition fees as well? That should be fairly obvious. Tuition fees are meant to (at least partially) pay for teachers (time, expertise), teaching infrastructure and ancillary structures to a formal education. Since you're self-teaching, you're providing all of those yourself. You could pay, but you'd pay yourself and that would be silly. Note that I'm not arguing about the general point of the OP but rather about these specific points.