Kung Peng-cheng, now a professor in the Graduate Institute of History at Chung Cheng University and tapped to be president of the future Fo Kuang University, sees part of the problem as being innate to education in a capitalist system. Students pay tuition, while professors are paid by the credit. "It's ridiculous to ask the students to respect the teachers in a situation where knowledge is assigned a monetary value."
中正大學歷史研究所教授、未來的佛光大學校長龔鵬程更是質疑，在整個資本主義教育體系下，學生繳學分費、教師領鐘點費，「知識金錢化的情形下，要求學生尊師是很可笑的。」