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Actually, the overall budgets of universities have increased substantially— they've more than made up for the lost state funding by raising tuition and other fu

by toomim 8y ago

Actually, the overall budgets of universities have increased substantially— they've more than made up for the lost state funding by raising tuition and other fundraising. U.C. Berkeley, for instance, has increased its overall operating budget by from $1.6B in 2006 to $2.7B in 2018. That's a 68% increase over just the last 12 years! [1] Universities are spending, and taking in, more than ever. Even with all this cash, Elsevier's subscriptions are not cheap. The estimated cost for U.C. Berkeley is $1.15M per year. [2] [1] https://controller.berkeley.edu/home/uc-berkeley-financial-reports https://controller.berkeley.edu/home/uc-berkeley-financial-r... [2] https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-cost-for-a-university-subscription-to-the-entire-Elsevier-database-with-unlimited-views-and-downloads-for-an-academic-year https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-cost-for-a-university-subs...

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kyralis 8y ago
Just for reference, and this does not diminish the parent's point significantly, inflation accounts for approximately 24% of that increase. That's still a 36% real increase in operating budget assuming student size held constant.
- rwl 8y ago
  > assuming student size held constant It did not: https://pages.github.berkeley.edu/OPA/our-berkeley/enroll-history.html https://pages.github.berkeley.edu/OPA/our-berkeley/enroll-hi... During this period, the undergraduate student population grew about 20%. I was at Berkeley during most of this period. The undergraduate population swelled at the same time that the university was dealing with difficult budget cuts. The growth was significant enough that many students had, and still have, difficulty signing up for the courses they needed. (I believe the cuts and the student population increase were related: admitting more students, especially out of state students, brought in more revenue. But there could have been other factors, like more students wanting a college degree after the financial crisis.)
  - DanFeldman 8y ago
    To color this even further, at UC Berkeley I had intro courses with 1,200 students.

by toomim 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

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kyralis 8y ago

Just for reference, and this does not diminish the parent's point significantly, inflation accounts for approximately 24% of that increase. That's still a 36% real increase in operating budget assuming student size held constant.

rwl 8y ago
> assuming student size held constant It did not: https://pages.github.berkeley.edu/OPA/our-berkeley/enroll-history.html https://pages.github.berkeley.edu/OPA/our-berkeley/enroll-hi... During this period, the undergraduate student population grew about 20%. I was at Berkeley during most of this period. The undergraduate population swelled at the same time that the university was dealing with difficult budget cuts. The growth was significant enough that many students had, and still have, difficulty signing up for the courses they needed. (I believe the cuts and the student population increase were related: admitting more students, especially out of state students, brought in more revenue. But there could have been other factors, like more students wanting a college degree after the financial crisis.)
- DanFeldman 8y ago
  To color this even further, at UC Berkeley I had intro courses with 1,200 students.