Why Colleges Cost So Much?

Good article picking apart some of the standard arguments and explanations. The authors point more to long-term trends in which a service industry relies on a highly trained workforce using highly sophisticated technology. All of those "external" elements (service sector, high levels of training, technological demands) drive college pricing above CPI much more so than the standard "internal" list of public financial aid, gold plated residence life, irrelevant research, and administrative bloat.

http://www.insidehighered.com/views/2010/10/19/feldman