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I'm skeptical of the accuracy of those numbers. I feel like there's oftentimes little accountability in the nebulous academic bureaucracy. An extreme case from

• amluto 4y ago
  High end universities regularly mark up most expenses charged to research grants by about 75%. This is the result of negotiations between the university and the government. Nongovernmental grantors will sometimes negotiate much lower overhead. I suspect the negotiation goes “here’s $1M to a prestigious professor, and you may not touch it. We’ll give you $100k to make you feel better. Take it or leave it. By the way, if you leave it, we will happily offer the same research group $1M if they pack their bags and move to a different university.” Wise professors with grants with differing overhead schedules will, of course, allocate charges to minimize the university’s cut.
  • matthewdgreen 4y ago
    If the donation is structured as an unrestricted gift, many universities take <5% as overhead. The nature of such gifts is that they cannot have, well, restrictions. So you can’t ask for deliverables or any other guarantees that might go along with a normal contract.