The reason college costs have gone up is because the government decided to make it so anyone could get college loans and they couldn't discharge them through bankruptcy. Then the public education system told everyone that if you don't go to college you'll be a poor loser. So while you don't have to go to college in the strictest sense, you have the same effect. Everyone does because they are told they must. And the schools know they are guaranteed those sweet federal loans which have strings on the naïve 17 year olds but none on the colleges. Why not raise prices? Why not build unnecessary ego projects? The incentive is to lower standards, enroll as many students as possible and raise tuition. Even state universities do this.