The only way to do it without swimming against the economic flow is to create some new universities not encumbered by all the academic cruft that accumulates over multiple decades.<p>Any new business that can focus solely on the elements of what makes university education valuable in the first place, and can maintain that focus for enough time, will end up eating the old guard&#x27;s lunches, turning out grad with 90% of the useful skills and 50% the advantageous social connections, at only 10% the cost.  Those grads will go on to jobs that pay 75% as much, but their student loan payments will be 10% as burdensome.<p>College-age kids are not <i>quite</i> so dumb as to never realize that they could get along just as well academically, at less cost, while living in a decrepit old dorms, capsule hotels, discreetly parked converted vans, or parents&#x27; basements.<p>In short, existing universities can do nearly <i>nothing</i> to meaningfully cut their own costs.  Their hands are tied by foundation requirements, tradition, alumni expectations, and countless boards and committees.  Their budgets are so strictly controlled by vested interests who have built both careers and pensions on them that they can sooner fire an adjunct than to refrain from installing a bronze plaque dedicated to Someguy Alumni in the Inverted Aquatic Basketology building.<p>Start 100 new universities from scratch, and let 90 of them fail.  Repeat until tuition falls permanently.