In this article, the author explores the features of the higher education (HE) industry (nationally and globally) in terms of an industrial economic analysis. Specifically, the author explores the following questions: (1) Can HE as an industry and HEIs as service-providers control costs in the absence of a free and genuinely/ruthlessly competitive market?; and (2) Should HE be a free public good paid for solely/largely from taxes, or a regulated quasi-public good with controlled/capped prices, or a liberalised privately traded commodity unhindered by State control but also no longer directly state funded? In exploring all this, the author draws heavily on the economic analysis of the university contained in half-a-dozen or so US texts listed under "Funding/Finance" or "USA" at the Bibliography Page of the OxCHEPS website [http://www.oxcheps.new.ox.ac.uk].