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This is one story. If you pull the financials of major public colleges, prof salaries per credit hour taught are increasing. No other metric matters. The cost
by wtvanhest 7y ago
This is one story. If you pull the financials of major public colleges, prof salaries per credit hour taught are increasing.
No other metric matters.
The cost has to come down, and that includes the cost of instruction etc.
- chongli 7y agoNo other metric matters That’s simply not true. The vast majority of the increase in cost is due to the explosive growth of non-teaching administrative staff. When wealthy donors earmark their gift for a new library or sports complex, it’s the students who end up paying for all of the staff to maintain the building and run the programs.
- craftinator 7y agoDing, +1. Schools spend their vast income on administrators, marketing, and marketing gimmicks, such as sports and very expensive new buildings. They are in competition with other schools to bring in more students and manage more students (thus bringing in more cash), so they optimize for that goal.
- wtvanhest 7y agoI've looked at a bunch of school financials, and I am not really seeing the admin bloat that everyone quotes. That said, its not really the only metric that matters, but it does matter a lot. And it matters a lot more than all other metrics around cost because you can easily reduce those other metrics if they are truly bloat. Professor salaries cannot easily come down, and you cannot easily add more kids per class.
- chongli 7y agoSchools don't need to bring professor salaries down. They just hire cheap adjuncts to teach a lot of classes. That greatly reduces their average cost per credit hour. Good professors pay for themselves by bringing in grant money.