50k is not a lot for even a mid sized college or university.
The very small college I work for (enrollment under 1200) just spent 250k on two robotics classrooms.
A school with any engineering program at all will spend this amount of money on something like this with very little hesitation.
And even if they won't spend hard dollars, every institution employees people to write grants (that's what I do). The amount of public and private grants in the STEM field for higher education is mind boggling. I can think of 4 businesses that would write this check next week after the application is submitted. Hell, I can think of one business that would probably write the check tomorrow after a quick phone call.
The bizarre economics of American higher ed aside, I'm thinking outside the US – and countries in the global north – as well. A flagship institution in a middle or even low-income country might be able to afford a system like that, too, even if it involves going to the EU for development funds.
Just a note, the average tuition for universities in the US is somewhere around 26k usually. And when you look at just public universities, it's something like 14k on average.
But the point still stands, I think. We're talking about 2 or 3 students to be able to fund this.
