It is all of the following factors: restricted supply, price indifferent consumers, free credit, on-academic competition between colleges, high regulation, and

It is all of the following factors: restricted supply, price indifferent consumers, free credit, on-academic competition between colleges, high regulation, and administrative bloat. If you set these factors aside, there is no reason people couldn't get a legitimate bachelors for a few thousand dollars a year. you could literally run an engineering program using class recordings from MIT and Stanford out of a community center like AA meetings.