This comment was given to an international panel on the economics of education at the invitation of the Beijing Forum, China, on 3 November 2012. It was published in Chinese in Volume 11, 2013, of the "Peking University Education Review". It considers the connections between ethics, economics and policy towards higher education, using a number of perspectives. It concludes that social choices will rely on the application of both economic and ethical theory if social harmony and cohesion are to be maintained; and that the development of an educated population through policies which are economically sustainable and socially just, and with the university as an essential public good, is a key to this.