I think "higher education is broken" means something different to some people than it does to you.

Specifically, someone in Mulvey's position may, I speculate, be interpreting it as "not worth saving or reforming", and when she denies it is "broken" is affirming reform as worthwhile and giving up as wrong.

That could be a biased perspective! It might be objectively wrong if we could survey alternate universes to determine the outcome of policy changes for sure. But not stupid or obviously false with our limited knowledge.