There's lot's of talk that higher education is broken. Who broke it? https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/08/14/everyone-thinks-the-current-state-of-higher-education-is-awful-who-is-to-blame/
Child: Why do we need to do this?! Adult: You need to do this lesson so that you can do well on the test so that you can do well in this class so that you can do well in elementary school so that you can do well in middle school so that you can do well in high school so that you can do well in college so that you don't grow up to be a terrible person who has no friends and doesn't deserve to be loved. Yeah. Way to inspire the thirst for knowledge, rational thinking, creativity... .
From the article: To me, this is like saying "But Communism is really, really good. We just need people to stop being inherently selfish." Uh, yeah, let me know how that works out for you. What will make a university autonomous? Completely 100% government funded? OK, then it's autonomous until a new politician takes office and decides to cut off those purse strings to exercise control. Completely funded through philanthropy? We've seen some very rich people basically say they are done with their alma mater because they disagreed with a political position taken by some students. So the schools have to either stand by their convictions of free speech or buckle for cash. I am positive that the University of Scranton relies more heavily on those same sort of wealthy connections (regardless of their allegedly nefarious dealings) than the $25 that people like me kick over every year or so. Completely fund through tuition? Well, that brings us back to the original problem. You won't get any argument from me if you state that the majority of any group of people is going to be whiny, self-centered and demanding. I get why too much student control can turn universities into customer service hubs moreso than institutes of higher learning. But the only schools who can safely escape the temptation of caving to whims are those that have billion+ endowments who can afford to pass on your politically charged philanthropic gift. And even in that situation, no institution wants to dip into the endowment.