MARKETS IN EVERYTHING: Putting A Price On Professors. Happily, I’m quite profitable for my school. In a troubled industry, you want to be a profit center, not a cost center.

Meanwhile, James Joyner has more thoughts. “I’ve been complaining about the transformation of higher ed into a ‘customer service’ business and about the move toward having universities run by bean counters with graduate degrees in faux disciplines like ‘Higher Education Administration’ for years. But I’m not necessarily against the movement described here. . . . The problem, however, is that the metrics the educrats are likely to use won’t address these problems and, indeed, will exacerbate them.”

The real problem is that higher education isn’t providing enough of a benefit to its graduates, not that universities aren’t extracting enough money from the students. But read the whole thing. Including this: “And, of course, while professors are expensive, they’re not the main expense. Administrators outnumber faculty at most universities these days. But I suspect that won’t get the scrutiny it deserves.” Speaking of cost centers. Much more on administrative bloat, here.