Slipping (Further) Off the Pedestal

Original Article - The article is about a survey of public's perception about the HIGH higher education price.

Quality check is the most important factor in affecting the cost of higher education.

A lot of comments are well received.

I like to point out couple of my points:

Should we really believe the HE is necessary for all/most of our citizen?
Personally, I wouldn't say that just yet until I see our K12 crank out quality students - I am pretty sure a lot of things I do today, I will be able to do it with my high school degree adding some self-improvement.

To me, the quality check is the most important factor in affecting the cost of higher education. Personally, I have no problem with the idea that the lower cost will bring down the quality - as long as the quality is reflect on the price. There are institutions with great faculties and highly qualified students that are well deserved the high price. But there are also institutions with great faculties but not so qualified students. In this case, the high quality faculties is under used and institutions might as well lower the price and hire suitable faculties. The problem is, of cause, at this point, parents and students do not have good information on the quality of college graduates. They can only go for the brand names and, of cause, no one is going to risk their future by betting on cheaper colleges - you can't blame people to believe that, in some way, the price could reflect quality especially when there is no good indicator.