4 ms·

Except if you look at university budgets you’ll see that most of that overhead ends up paying for…that’s right. People.

• jdiez17 4y ago
  Right, there are a lot of administrators, janitors, technical support staff etc being paid by the university. But I'm surprised they aren't paid by the students tuition fees, since are so ridiculously high already.
  • alsodumb 4y ago
    There a too many administrators imo, who are often paid quite a bit. I don't think a University needs so many associate deans, assistant deans, and directors. Unfortunately it's people in those roles that make future hiring decisions so minimizing spending there isn't usually their goal.
  • jldugger 4y ago
    Student tuition is high but not a high part of the budget. 40 years ago tuition was mostly covered by the state and tuition charged to students was basically just a copay to ensure you weren't terrible. But since the end of the cold war there's basically been a one way ratchet: every time a recession hits the states cut uni funding to balance the budget, the unis raise tuition to compensate, and when the recession is over this now the new normal.
  • Fomite 4y ago
    The immediate question that would come from that is why is a technician or grant admin paid off tuition, when a student will never benefit from that? That also doesn't account for things that don't "feel" like your typical university but are major research centers, like medical schools, where a lot of faculty are purely research.