Universities are complex combinations of several value propositions. The most significant is real estate. Universities increase the value of real estate around

Universities are complex combinations of several value propositions. The most significant is real estate. Universities increase the value of real estate around them as they grow. Consequently, the last decade is the largest growth in higher ed real estate expansion - precisely as the surge into digital education could not be more obvious. Most of the billions in donations that higher ed receives goes to real estate. Second, a degree is the only price protection universities enjoy. The evidence for this is massive - there has been an explosion of alternative learning institutions and systems. They can’t charge anything near what a university can. Universities are very, very aware of this. The idea that universities are a service organization is mostly a myth. They are at best a feudal cartel. More than 50% of faculty are part-time and paid very poorly. Faculty who are worth tenure are directly responsible for sourcing government grants for research. University administrators (and admission, i.e. marketing/PR departments) are painfully aware that they must project a mythic image of the “college experience” and employability in order to maintain public perception that they are a necessary right of passage. A recent study found only 2 in 100 students actually have that experience. There is one ready market for this narrative: foreign, wealthy families - for whom a college degree is access to the American economy. Universities are a highly adaptive entity that has formed over 100 years in relentless pursuit of their own survival. They have close to zero insight in terms of the education needs of students and even worse: when they are present with it they choose their fiction over a re-invention. Nothing about this is surprising - it’s how all big corporations die. To;dr; universities recognize any negotiation around reducing their price due to reduced services to be an existential threat and will fight it at all costs.