MORE HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE STUFF FROM THE ECONOMIST: Declining by degree: Will America’s universities go the way of its car companies? “Could America’s universities go the way of its car companies? On the face of it, this seems highly unlikely. Student enrolments are higher than ever this year, as Americans who cannot find jobs linger or return to education. Cambridge, Massachusetts, shows no outward sign of becoming Detroit. Yet there are serious questions about America’s ivory towers.” What they have in common with the car companies of the 1970s is that they’re being run for the benefit of the insiders, and with little thought for the actual customers.