Ensuring both quality and affordability requires a multi-layered strategy addressing structural inefficiencies, technology and financing. High-quality education is resource-intensive — skilled educators, small classes, infrastructure, support services — which drives costs up and access down. Technology (digital platforms, AI-enabled tutoring, virtual simulations) can expand access and lower marginal costs when used as an amplifier of human teaching rather than a replacement, freeing instructors for mentoring, feedback and project facilitation, while shared digital resources cut duplication. Administrative streamlining and integrated digital systems reduce bureaucratic overhead without compromising quality. Financing models must evolve too: sustained public investment (since societal benefits exceed individual returns) alongside income-share agreements, grants, targeted subsidies and performance-based funding, plus institutional diversification through micro-credentials, continuing education, research partnerships and philanthropy to ease tuition pressure. Quality assurance should shift from rewarding inputs to outcomes — learning gains, engagement, post-graduation success — and the key is rejecting the false dichotomy between quality and affordability.