How does one value a University Education?

So a user called into work a few days ago demanding to know why he couldn’t access the course information on Blackboard for a course he took last semester.

Blackboard, for the uninitiated, is our campus’ online posting system - like Moodle or others. It’s a place for professors to put files and documents, assignments, syllabi, etc… as well as a medium for communication between the professor and students.

This user - who was clearly a “continuing ed” student (that is to say, he was 40 or more years old) - was surprised and outraged when I told him that course information was only accessible during the semester that he was taking the course. He felt that when he paid tuition for the course, he had paid for perpetual access to the materials used to teach the course.

It makes a certain amount of sense, doesn’t it? If one paid for the course, and certain materials are made available to you as part of that, don’t you have a right to those materials? It begs the question: when you pay tuition, what are you buying?

I shuffled him off to talk to the registrar about that one, but I doubt they gave him what he wanted. I don’t blame them - his claim doesn’t make sense to me for several reasons. Before I post those, though, I’d be interested to hear other people’s answers to the question above. What ARE we paying for?

On an unrelated side-note, I’m facing a crisis. I’m suffering from Giant Robot withdrawal, and I can’t find a single toy I want that’d cost under like $250 to get it here. So - I need suggestions. I don’t know who reads this who keeps up with giant robots, I’ll take any suggestions you have into consideration. The price ceiling, with shipping, is $200.

I think Gunbuster spoiled me…