Walk onto the manicured campus of High Point University and you’ll see exactly what happens when free-market discipline meets higher education: steakhouse dinners, mock airplane cabins and a relentless focus on polishing students for the real world. These aren’t idle luxuries but deliberate investments in social capital and networking—tools that wealthy families value and that the school markets aggressively to full-pay students.
That strategy was no accident. Under President Nido Qubein the school has been run like a turnaround business, tripling enrollment, buying up parcels to expand from a small campus into hundreds of acres and charging tuition and tiered housing fees that reflect the premium experience on offer. Parents who can afford the sticker price make the model work, and the university has rebuilt itself on private dollars rather than begging Washington for handouts.
And before the campus critics scoff about forks and fountains, consider outcomes: High Point touts placement and career-readiness numbers that put many traditional colleges to shame, and conservative Americans should applaud any institution that delivers return on investment rather than degrees that lead nowhere. The proof that a market-oriented approach can produce results is the reason families vote with their wallets.
Of course, the elites on the academic left have predictable objections, branding this kind of practical, career-focused university a “glorified country club” and pointing to low Pell-Grant percentages as evidence of elitism. Those critiques reveal more about the left’s preference for entitlement and subsidies than about whether young people are being prepared for productive lives and stable careers.
The broader lesson is political and fiscal: as the federal landscape shifts and Washington threatens to cut or redirect subsidies, colleges that learn to operate like businesses and attract paying families will survive while the subsidy-dependent institutions flounder. Conservatives should stop reflexively demonizing private funding models and instead champion institutions that prioritize outcomes, accountability and self-reliance over entitlement.
High Point is not the whole answer to American higher education’s failures, but it is an important blueprint: deliver value, focus on careers, run the place efficiently and stop pretending that unlimited government money is the only path to access. If we want colleges that serve hardworking Americans and produce skilled graduates, we should celebrate and replicate what works instead of letting ideology drive policy for campuses that have already lost touch with students’ needs.
