> Where is all the money going? It's complicated? And depends on if you're talking about elite private universities, middle-tier state schools, for-profit sch

> Where is all the money going? It's complicated? And depends on if you're talking about elite private universities, middle-tier state schools, for-profit schools, etc. Most classes of schools have larger administrations: some are just bloat, of course, but others are managing demand for increased student services, greater requirements on compliance for federal grants, increased desire to woo wealthy private donors, etc. Virtually all classes of universities are trying to expand their facilities and update or maintain their physical plants; this becomes an arms race when students are paying full freight--who will pay in the high five figures yearly to attend some place with run-down buildings? Elite universities have sharply expanded financial aid as they have broadened their student bodies beyond the already wealthy. For-profit schools charge what they can and direct the extra to shareholders, propped up by federal student loans; this has led to a wide range of abuses. Finally, we must not forget that there has been a major effort to defund public higher education. Rather than casting a university degree as something that other citizens benefit from, it's depicted as purely a private good that students themselves should pay for. See "Unmaking the Public University" by Newfield. In this case the "higher tuition" is not new money to the university, but shifting the burden of paying for the education from society to the individual.