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Actually, at a lot of schools, their main job is to pull in grant money.

The extent to which these research programs are 'profitable' to university is greatly exagerated. Yes, they increase overall revenues, but they are heavily supported by cross-subsidies.

A university may make a big deal in a press release about a new $1 million dollar grant where five faculty are going to work on a project for 3 years. However, little or none of that grant will support the basic salary of the faculty members who are working on it. The money will be spent on graduate students salaries, lab equipment, travel, and extra summer salary for the faculty members. If the five faculty members are earning $100,000 annually with 30% fring benefits and they are spending 1/3 of their time on this project, then the university is spending about $650,000 on faculty time which isn't charged to the project. That's before factoring in the lab space, secretary time and other factors needed to support the projects.

Yes, the university is increasing it's overall revenue by winning that grant. But they are accomplishing it by diverting resources that were originally intended for teaching. If Wal-Mart was evaluating a new revenue producing idea, and it turned out that it required keeping the customers waiting in line with the cashiers left their cash registers to do something else, their accountants would factor in that cost. Universities don't.

I agree with you -- I guess need to find an ASCII tongue-in-cheek symbol: if Universities were really subject to market forces (rather than being paid with heavily subsidized student loans, and a whispering / PR campaign that "you NEED a college degree" (never mind if it's in late Renaissance Slavic lesbian studies, or even worse, law), they'd cost about 20% of what they do, and only about a third of the people in college would currently be there.

But then we'd have to re-do Eisenhower's "Operation Wetback" and cancel the H1-B and L-1 visa programs. And the powers that be, intent on destroying our nation and culture from within (now that they have control of the institutions) will not let that happen.

Cheers! Cheers!

. But they are accomplishing it by diverting resources that were originally intended for teaching

That you think *should have been* just for teaching. Research has always been one of the functions of colleges and universities. Pretty much in all fields.

Some institutions evolved from pure research institutes, into full undergrad and graduate universities. One example. The University of Texas at Dallas. AKA "TI-U", although TI was not, and is not, the only corporate supporter.