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Administration can consume any amount of money, so long as it isn't getting in the way of the money coming in the door. Just look at universities in USA. They'r

Administration can consume any amount of money, so long as it isn't getting in the way of the money coming in the door. Just look at universities in USA. They're not doing anything now they weren't doing in 1980, yet tuition inflation was 7% over for most of the period since then. Where did the money go? They hired more assistant administrators, to justify higher salaries for the top administrators. Also the perks are pretty nice.

einpoklum 7y ago
I doubt even your numeric figure is exact; source? Anyway, supposing that it is - how do you know that's where the money went? And - how do you know the money went mostly to the same place in most universities? This sounds like a baseless generalization. PS - I'm not from the US.
- jessaustin 7y ago
  https://www.kansascityfed.org/publications/research/er/articles/2019/1q19bundick-pollard-rise-and-fall-college-tuition-inflation https://www.kansascityfed.org/publications/research/er/artic...
  - secabeen 7y ago
    The summary here has it all laid out: >They find that supply factors such as wages in the education sector and state appropriations to higher education both play important roles in explaining changes in college tuition inflation. In contrast, they find little evidence that demand factors such as changes in the availability of student loans have a significant effect on college tuition.
- ambernightcruse 7y ago
  This is a pretty general assertion on the rising cost of college, and in the US it's commonly understood that there are a lot of extra admins, but not a lot of extra professors for students; mostly adjunct faculty and never-tenured instructors. Your experience wil vary depending on the public/private, size, department, etc. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/higher-ed-administrators-growth_n_4738584 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/higher-ed-administrators-grow...
glofish 7y ago
I have come to believe that the claim that administration increased dramatically is a myth. Take a university that provides decent statistics: http://irp.dpb.cornell.edu/university-factbook/employees http://irp.dpb.cornell.edu/university-factbook/employees click workflow trends. The workforce composition is virtually unchanged over the past 20 years.
- secabeen 7y ago
  The Ed department has great data on this too: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_334.30.asp https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_334.30.a... Expenditures in real per-student dollars are up, but at nothing like 7% a year. Tuition is up because of disinvestment by state legislatures: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fancy-dorms-arent-the-main-reason-tuition-is-skyrocketing/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fancy-dorms-arent-the-m... Even there, net tuition actually paid by students at private schools is also largely flat, as while the nameplate tuition has gone up, few students pay that, as they get grants, financial aid, etc.: https://research.collegeboard.org/trends/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-net-price-sector-over-time https://research.collegeboard.org/trends/college-pricing/fig...
  - specialist 7y ago
    This is The Mostly Correct Answer. Cause & effect got obscured by compounding factors, including, but not limited to: privatizing student loans, grade inflation, ratcheting up credentials, glut of labor, artificially constraining supply, the textbook racket, the standardized testing racket, the academic publishing racket, the money chase for funding basic research, and others I'm sure I've forgotten. Source: Worked in higher ed.

einpoklum 7y ago

I doubt even your numeric figure is exact; source? Anyway, supposing that it is - how do you know that's where the money went? And - how do you know the money went mostly to the same place in most universities? This sounds like a baseless generalization. PS - I'm not from the US.

jessaustin 7y ago
https://www.kansascityfed.org/publications/research/er/articles/2019/1q19bundick-pollard-rise-and-fall-college-tuition-inflation https://www.kansascityfed.org/publications/research/er/artic...
- secabeen 7y ago
  The summary here has it all laid out: >They find that supply factors such as wages in the education sector and state appropriations to higher education both play important roles in explaining changes in college tuition inflation. In contrast, they find little evidence that demand factors such as changes in the availability of student loans have a significant effect on college tuition.
ambernightcruse 7y ago
This is a pretty general assertion on the rising cost of college, and in the US it's commonly understood that there are a lot of extra admins, but not a lot of extra professors for students; mostly adjunct faculty and never-tenured instructors. Your experience wil vary depending on the public/private, size, department, etc. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/higher-ed-administrators-growth_n_4738584 https://www.huffpost.com/entry/higher-ed-administrators-grow...

glofish 7y ago

I have come to believe that the claim that administration increased dramatically is a myth. Take a university that provides decent statistics: http://irp.dpb.cornell.edu/university-factbook/employees http://irp.dpb.cornell.edu/university-factbook/employees click workflow trends. The workforce composition is virtually unchanged over the past 20 years.

secabeen 7y ago
The Ed department has great data on this too: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_334.30.asp https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d18/tables/dt18_334.30.a... Expenditures in real per-student dollars are up, but at nothing like 7% a year. Tuition is up because of disinvestment by state legislatures: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fancy-dorms-arent-the-main-reason-tuition-is-skyrocketing/ https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/fancy-dorms-arent-the-m... Even there, net tuition actually paid by students at private schools is also largely flat, as while the nameplate tuition has gone up, few students pay that, as they get grants, financial aid, etc.: https://research.collegeboard.org/trends/college-pricing/figures-tables/average-net-price-sector-over-time https://research.collegeboard.org/trends/college-pricing/fig...
- specialist 7y ago
  This is The Mostly Correct Answer. Cause & effect got obscured by compounding factors, including, but not limited to: privatizing student loans, grade inflation, ratcheting up credentials, glut of labor, artificially constraining supply, the textbook racket, the standardized testing racket, the academic publishing racket, the money chase for funding basic research, and others I'm sure I've forgotten. Source: Worked in higher ed.