[wbillingsley]

If I recall, the overhead of running a university (the fraction taken by the central institution to run campus and facilities, versus the amount coming into the schools to pay academics) is around two thirds of the student revenue in Australia.

Although that sounds large, it's not in corporate terms. Charging the customer 2.3 to 3 times an employee's salary seems about standard. And universities are notorious for casual using work to an underpaid "precariate".

That suggests there isn't a whole lot of margin for technology to capture in the first place.

After which, you find that degree-awarding is a regulated activity in most countries, offered by public institutions subsidised by government loan and contribution schemes.

Tech has had a massive influence on higher education in the last ten years, but it seems to go via universities buying more systems and services rather than "University of the Unregulated Start Up" suddenly sweeping the public-controlled market for education.