Colleges as businesses.

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Consider how profitable it would be to own a college. Meet the minimum requirements from some random accrediting agency, charge however much you like. The success or failure of your students matters little if you can report the statistics in a clever manner - as anyone who has ever seen a billboard would probably be able to do. As long as students sign all the paperwork, guess what, you've got your revenue. Make sure to have required gen-eds for every major, make them as cheap as possible so as not to pay too much and then charge as much as is possible to be covered by financial aid for students in your target market. Basically, buy low and sell high. Keep students busy with massive reading assignments and shiploads of graded assignments so that they feel like they're actually doing something other than being an agent for the funneling of money. In the college catalog, make sure the names and descriptions of courses sound appealing so that students might be eager to sign up for them, but don't waste too much money on making the hype of the course advertisements fit the actuality of the class or else too much of the student's financial aid money might go into their education rather than into the new building fund or the "I want another new yacht for next year" account. If the students start making light-work of the homework because it's too simple and easy and they might get done too soon, have the instructors nitpick them about meaningless minutiae so as to require them to stay longer and provide more income. It's so easy to use students to make money, as many of them have been convinced throughout their childhood about how important and wondrous a college education is. They have not just demand for this product, but even what is tantamount to a religious fervor - so, feed off of such blind and naive prospects of people who don't know how to manage their money and don't yet realize how much debt they're going to be in at the expense of obtaining a piece of highly decorated toilet paper.

Yep, that's how education works. Then you can use your expensive toilet paper to spend the rest of your life making other people rich.

That depends on the college in question. A lot of the private ones (like University of Phoenix) are making a killing (recently profiled in a evening news story). However, many state schools and private colleges DO NOT make great amounts of profit. Granted, they know how to throw around $$$ to some people more than others and there are things they could do to control costs better, but to say they are doing very well is hit and miss.

I know the people who do much of the actual work on a campus (physical plant/custodial, secretaries, etc.) are paid about what the market bears for their job. Professors tend to be overpaid if they are tenured because they get the money, benefits, perks, and can't be fired for issues of productivity. The associate professors (new guys) usually are overworked and underpaid. Some schools have a huge number of tenured professors.

Institutions of higher learning are accredited by the state and range from trade schools and technical colleges to community/junior colleges to universities and graduate/professional schools. There can be a little bit of politics involved in the accreditation process, but there are still limits to what even a privatization fanatic will approve.

I liked the movie "Accepted" it was an awful sitcom movie but the plot is completely plausible: a brainless rejected guy making a university that turns out better than the current system.

It wouldn't take much effort at all to improve the current system. Allow for all of the college level credit to be earned by examination, with tests like the CLEP and AP or perhaps improved to be better measurements if possible. Have the universities allow for public supervised lab work, perhaps charging some amount of rent for the times needed in order to pay the supervisors. Have there be no deadlines for learning, which would encourage people like me to actually study and learn rather than feel frustrated and overwhelmed. Charge only cost per unit of time used at facilities rather than having a multiple year contract to adhere to. Etc. Universities ought to work as facilities to facilitate education, and not merely to facilitate the obtainment of revenue up a pyramid scheme corporation.