How much of an issue is this? After seeing the budget (ca. late 80's)
for my undergraduate (and only) alma mater, I concluded that tuition
must be set more as matter of taste than anything to do with finance.
Admittedly, this was a small private school, with a pretty good collection
of buildings named Beckman, so it may not be representative. Also, despite
my qualms at the time about the value of the education relative to tuition,
the old boy network has certainly justified it since.
If institutions operate on a basis of scarcity rents, they may not
be very concerned about failure to set market-clearing prices.
-Dave