Transparency and Quality in Higher Education Markets

Since applicants are generally hard-put to know just how much they are really learning, let alone how much they can expect to learn at a school they have never seen, they do not make enlightened choices. They rarely possess either the time or the information to explore all the promising options available to them and usually have only a limited basis for comparing the options they do consider. Under these conditions, competition does not necessarily cause good instruction to drive out bad. Instead, students often flock to courses with superficial appeal or to institutions with established reputations even though the education they receive is only mediocre.... [C]ompetition does not inspire universities or their faculties to do as much as they might to improve their instruction in the way that it forces computer companies to work at improving their products (Bok, 2003, pp. 161-162).