The "superiority" that you're accusing professors of is actually a reaction to the power struggle brought on by students with the mindset of "I'm paying for x, therefore I get to make the rules." I adamantly disagree with this idea. Students should go to a university with a sense of humility -- they should go not because they're told to by the job market, parents, etc., but because they have the self-reflective ability to identify the gaps in their knowledge ("scio me nihil scire") and the drive to fill those gaps through rigorous study.

The problem? Young people are terrible at self-reflection. I know that there were many points in my youth when I said to myself, "I know all there is to know about life now." This leads to a kind of privileged arrogance that really can't be fully appreciated until one sees how lucky we are to be able to have the opportunity to learn in such safe, structured environment.