> bringing the cost-value equation back to a defensible reality.

I firmly believe looking at academia through this lens is part of the reason why it has been so firmly exploited as a business.

To treat the school as a business in partnership with corporation treats the student as the customer and product. Like everything in our time, the push for profit leads to optimization and enshitification.

The student experience, student outcome, and quality of academia have all been sent through the enshitification wringer.

We can point to the lowering in quality of research to this, the reliance on poorly paid grad students, which end up producing worse work, worse research, and less effect on industry.

I firmly believe there needs to be a degree of separation between academia and corporate interests.

To optimize for profit finds local maxima and limits the ability of academia to do real research.