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Thanks for sharing, this is really interesting. Still, I wonder how German and U.S. universities compare for example in numbers of tutors. ("HiWis") I would es

Thanks for sharing, this is really interesting. Still, I wonder how German and U.S. universities compare for example in numbers of tutors. ("HiWis") I would estimate there is one per 20-50 students per course and they might fall into both groups since those helping out in 1st or 2nd semester courses might not have a university degree yet. Also the payment is typically quite low, although considered good enough for a first student job. They are actually quite an important part of studies like Physics and Mathematics. Regarding time of gradution/number students: in the past German model (which is now obsolete) where people studied for diploma, the typical lazy student would mean basically no extra cost for univsersities. Since this person usually doesn't occupy any lecture room or tutoring capacity... ;-) But the introduction of Bachelor/Master introduced quite some changes, in particular closer support for the students and more stringent time lines. But still, the Bachelor usually takes 3 years and the master an additional 2 years. Basically the curricula for diploma studies were just being split.

rsj_hn 6y ago
So people like tutors, graders, TAs, are considered academic staff, and you can add them up in terms of FTE (full time equivalent), so 5 tutors that each work 8 hours per week add up to a single FTE. It turns out not to make much of a difference to look only at full time staff versus FTE -- I didn't know this when I started looking at the data, but the slices of time by tutors end up being a marginal correction to counting just full time staff when you look at things like student-teacher ratios or total expenditure per staff. In the US, there is a meaningful difference between tenure track and non-tenure track, as universities shift ever more funds away from academic staff and towards non-academic staff, one way this is accomplished is to pay the academic staff less, and this is accomplished by keeping the old professors at current pay but hiring mostly non-tenure track instructors as headcount is increased. The other way this is accomplished is by identifying some problem that needs an immediate solution, and then creating multiple vice provost positions which require their own department position, etc. Say community relations, gender equality, many different types of "outreach" positions, etc. European universities have so far resisted this type of cannibalization of tuition dollars by non-academic staff. Thus the extra cost of non-academic staff is a good first order explanation for the diverge in annual tuition between US and Europe, and the fact that our students take 5-6 years to graduate and many don't graduate is another multiplier that explains differences in total spending on tertiary education per bachelors degree holder. Taken together, these three factors: non-academic staff, longer time to graduation, much higher dropout rates, basically explain the full difference in spending between the US and Europe.

rsj_hn 6y ago

So people like tutors, graders, TAs, are considered academic staff, and you can add them up in terms of FTE (full time equivalent), so 5 tutors that each work 8 hours per week add up to a single FTE. It turns out not to make much of a difference to look only at full time staff versus FTE -- I didn't know this when I started looking at the data, but the slices of time by tutors end up being a marginal correction to counting just full time staff when you look at things like student-teacher ratios or total expenditure per staff. In the US, there is a meaningful difference between tenure track and non-tenure track, as universities shift ever more funds away from academic staff and towards non-academic staff, one way this is accomplished is to pay the academic staff less, and this is accomplished by keeping the old professors at current pay but hiring mostly non-tenure track instructors as headcount is increased. The other way this is accomplished is by identifying some problem that needs an immediate solution, and then creating multiple vice provost positions which require their own department position, etc. Say community relations, gender equality, many different types of "outreach" positions, etc. European universities have so far resisted this type of cannibalization of tuition dollars by non-academic staff. Thus the extra cost of non-academic staff is a good first order explanation for the diverge in annual tuition between US and Europe, and the fact that our students take 5-6 years to graduate and many don't graduate is another multiplier that explains differences in total spending on tertiary education per bachelors degree holder. Taken together, these three factors: non-academic staff, longer time to graduation, much higher dropout rates, basically explain the full difference in spending between the US and Europe.