Opponents of free university-education in the country feel that alloca

Question

Opponents of free university-education in the country feel that allocating resources to providing free post-high school education would be wastage of the tax-payers money. They claim that no significant economic benefit will be realized from the same since most people with degrees will likely do such jobs in the country for which they are over-qualified and that the most bright and academically oriented people from economically underprivileged backgrounds do anyway benefit from the various scholarships already in place by the government.

Which of the following is an assumption on which the opponents’ argument is based?

A. The money that the government currently collects in taxes is not sufficient to finance free- university education in the country.

B. As the free university-education program is implemented, the economy will not generate enough jobs commensurate with the educational level of the graduates.

C. The most bright and academically oriented people normally do not have the economic means to pursue university education.

D. Currently, there is a shortage of suitable jobs in the country for people with university level education.

E. Many people who obtain degrees after the free university-education program is implemented will not choose to work within the country.

Sanamchawla · Answer

Could you please explain why the answer is B? This option seems like a new piece of information, so isn't it out of scope?

MSIMBA · Answer

A. The money that the government currently collects in taxes is not sufficient to finance free- university education in the country.

B. As the free university-education program is implemented, the economy will not generate enough jobs commensurate with the educational level of the graduates.
 
C. The most bright and academically oriented people normally do not have the economic means to pursue university education.

D. Currently, there is a shortage of suitable jobs in the country for people with university level education.

E. Many people who obtain degrees after the free university-education program is implemented will not choose to work within the country.

Yogesh_24 · Answer

Options B, D & E are quite close. Negating each of them has an negative impact on the conclusion. I went with E

MartyTargetTestPrep · Answer

This question is not that tightly constructed.

The passage says that the graduates will probably do jobs for which they are overqualified, but does not provide information on why they would do so, such as that jobs for which they are qualified won't be available.

So, as you caught, the argument is not really relying on the assumption that such jobs will not be created, because it does not say anything that clearly indicates that there will even be a shortage of such jobs. Yes, we could perhaps conclude that a prediction that college graduates will be overqualified for their jobs is based on an assumption that jobs requiring college education won't be available, but there are plenty of other reasons why college graduates would be in jobs for which they are overqualified.

So, the official answer to this question does not really state an assumption necessary to the integrity of the argument presented in the passage.

All that said, be careful about using "out of scope" for eliminating answer choices, as often the correct answer to a Critical Reasoning question will present new information that seems unrelated to the scenario presented in the passage but actually has a clear effect on the argument.

AnujSingh0147 · Answer

I deduce the option between B and D. Actually i confidently eliminated option B because of the forecasted outlook present in it (Grammar showcasing future tense present in the sentence)

Lesson to be Learned : 
Where tense analysis tripped you up
In logical reasoning, especially with predictions or policies, the argument often needs an assumption about future outcomes. The tense (future vs present) doesn’t invalidate the assumption — rather, it makes it exactly the bridge needed between the plan (free education) and the claimed effect (economic waste).

When evaluating assumptions about plans/policies → focus on what must be true in the future for the conclusion to hold, even if the tense shifts.

Option B: As the free university-education program is implemented, the economy will not generate enough jobs commensurate with the educational level of the graduates.
The argument claims graduates will end up overqualified for existing jobs → implying lack of commensurate jobs.

Yes, this is assumed — because if new suitable jobs were created, the program might not be wasteful.

Option D: Currently, there is a shortage of suitable jobs in the country for people with university-level education.
Similar to B — but subtly different. D states this is the case now, but the argument is projecting into the future (post free-education rollout).

Maybe the shortage now doesn’t mean it will continue → so this is not strictly assumed.

correct option B

Opponents of free university-education in the country feel that alloca

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GMAT Critical Reasoning (CR) Questions

Opponents of free university-education in the country feel that alloca

Prep Toolkit

615 to 715 in 15 Days (Ria's Strategies)

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