Guilty Conscience

[malkynn]

Originally Posted by AtomSmasherXVIII

Look at Sweden, where a university education is free. Every other janitor there has a PhD. And surprize surprize, there's an even greater shortage of skilled trades workers there than here. We are quickly going down this path.
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Oh good grief.

[rmorelan]

It is actually pretty hard to get into a phd program in a lot of Europe. The issue is once you remove the cost from something the associated increase of people willing to do it causes an increase in competition. Just because the education is free doesn't mean that it is open to all people - they simple restrict access to it in other ways. There is always economics at play one way or the other

[malkynn]

Originally Posted by rmorelan

It is actually pretty hard to get into a phd program in a lot of Europe. The issue is once you remove the cost from something the associated increase of people willing to do it causes an increase in competition. Just because the education is free doesn't mean that it is open to all people - they simple restrict access to it in other ways. There is always economics at play one way or the other

Exactly, thank you.

I try not to feed the troll, but this kind of clarification was sorely needed.

[JB.]

Look at medical education in Canada. It is much cheaper than the same education in the US because it's subsidized, however not everybody and their grandmother has an MD.

[nonstop]

Actually, free education makes it even more competitive, since there are people who otherwise wouldn't have considered doing the degree because of the cost. This is most likely the biggest reason why med is less competitive in the states than in Canada.
High school economics gg.

Edit: haha didn't notice rmorelan's post

[PlatinumHeart]

It's slightly distressing to hear people refer to a PhD as a "common" degree. Stats Canada identifies that only 0.7% of the population (over 15 years of age) has a doctorate. Even in Norway, CDH-Statistics identifies that only 0.37% of their population has a doctorate. That's hardly evidence to support that everyone has one.

Originally Posted by JB.

Look at medical education in Canada. It is much cheaper than the same education in the US because it's subsidized, however not everybody and their grandmother has an MD.

Oh, I love it, haha.

Originally Posted by nonstop

Actually, free education makes it even more competitive, since there are people who otherwise wouldn't have considered doing the degree because of the cost. This is most likely the biggest reason why med is less competitive in the states than in Canada.
[...]

I, strongly, agree with this statement. If the cost of tuition goes down, while the number of seats remain the same, then more people can apply; resulting in the chances of admission decreasing. Also, consider that if a Medical School receives an abundance of applicants then their, "minimum cut-offs," will also have to increase to accommodate the demand. Therefore, lower tuition fees or free education does not (necessarily) mean more people are graduating. If anything, it means that the people who are graduating will be more competitive.

P.S. I mention Norway because they have the highest percentage of people with university degrees or "higher," at ~41% of their population. Canada is ~25%.