4 ms·

I think universities are cash-strapped to the degree that they can't get more government checks, something most educational startups won't have any access to (a

I think universities are cash-strapped to the degree that they can't get more government checks, something most educational startups won't have any access to (and maybe this will be more true for more universities as student loan defaults keep increasing).

HarryHirsch 14y ago
> I think universities are cash-strapped to the degree that they can't get more government checks That is correct: funding through federal and state grants (and for state universities funding through state funds) has been gutted, and that is why they have to make up the shortfall by increasing tuition. In fact this is a common pattern: there is this shift from shared risk to individual risk. There might be many startup opportunities lurking there. For starters, I'm surprised to see that there is no union or trade organization that would make a group health insurance plan available to its members.
- ams6110 14y ago
  Most universities refuse to adapt to the changing availability of funding. They use grant funding to build large infrastructures that have large ongoing administrative or other overhead costs. When the grants dry up, they don't downsize, they raise tuition or come up with new fees. As with governments, it's almost impossible to get fired from a university job. Time off and other benefits are lavish, and there's almost no accountability to actually do anything of value when an employes is actually at work. The salaries aren't great, but when you can roll in at 10, take a 90 minute lunch, and go home at 4, and have 6 weeks paid time off, and health insurance at a price so low it is essentially free, nobody complains much.
  - dhimes 14y ago
    have 6 weeks paid time off Not where I worked. We found "summer jobs."
- protomyth 14y ago
  Can you site a source for "funding through federal and state grants (and for state universities funding through state funds) has been gutted"? I don't think this is universally true[1] and some of it is hidden in the "cut" = "didn't get expected increase"[2]. 1) I am fairly sure ND went up 2) MN universities said this for a number of years
  - HarryHirsch 14y ago
    NIH funding trends: http://www.faseb.org/Policy-and-Government-Affairs/Data-Compilations/NIH-Research-Funding-Trends.aspx http://www.faseb.org/Policy-and-Government-Affairs/Data-Comp... SUNY budget: http://chronicle.com/article/NY-Budget-Takes-Another-Bite/126968/ http://chronicle.com/article/NY-Budget-Takes-Another-Bite/12... "Didn't get expected increase" is equivalent to a budget cut, because the time horizon at a university is long - you hire a tenure-track professor in a suitable field, give the person startup money and hope he will stay and get grants in. It takes several years to recover this kind of investment. You simply cannot have politicians dick every year with the operating budget, it makes planning impossible. That is in fact what has put space research in the US far behind. That sort of project takes decades from proposal to wrapup.
    - protomyth 14y ago
      NIH is one research funding source and SUNY is one school system. I am wondering about the overall trend. How is it dicking with the budget when you get the same amount as last year? Not a lot of people can say that these days.
      - cinquemb 14y ago
        The Atlantic did a piece on decrease in government funding trends back in january: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/the-38-states-that-have-slashed-higher-education-spending/267427/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/the-38-s... And Think Progress shows some stats on another indicator of decrease in government funding trends (tuition hikes): http://thinkprogress.org/education/2013/03/19/1741231/states-higher-education-cuts/ http://thinkprogress.org/education/2013/03/19/1741231/states... The Kansas City Fed also did a report on a periphery indicator of decrease in government funding trends (student loan defaults) and more: http://www.kansascityfed.org/publicat/reswkpap/pdf/rwp%2012-05.pdf http://www.kansascityfed.org/publicat/reswkpap/pdf/rwp%2012-... And when you consider that universities have been raising their tuition prices by 5%+ per year for decades, if they get the same check as they received last year means that they will have less money to spend.

HarryHirsch 14y ago

> I think universities are cash-strapped to the degree that they can't get more government checks That is correct: funding through federal and state grants (and for state universities funding through state funds) has been gutted, and that is why they have to make up the shortfall by increasing tuition. In fact this is a common pattern: there is this shift from shared risk to individual risk. There might be many startup opportunities lurking there. For starters, I'm surprised to see that there is no union or trade organization that would make a group health insurance plan available to its members.

ams6110 14y ago
Most universities refuse to adapt to the changing availability of funding. They use grant funding to build large infrastructures that have large ongoing administrative or other overhead costs. When the grants dry up, they don't downsize, they raise tuition or come up with new fees. As with governments, it's almost impossible to get fired from a university job. Time off and other benefits are lavish, and there's almost no accountability to actually do anything of value when an employes is actually at work. The salaries aren't great, but when you can roll in at 10, take a 90 minute lunch, and go home at 4, and have 6 weeks paid time off, and health insurance at a price so low it is essentially free, nobody complains much.
- dhimes 14y ago
  have 6 weeks paid time off Not where I worked. We found "summer jobs."
protomyth 14y ago
Can you site a source for "funding through federal and state grants (and for state universities funding through state funds) has been gutted"? I don't think this is universally true[1] and some of it is hidden in the "cut" = "didn't get expected increase"[2]. 1) I am fairly sure ND went up 2) MN universities said this for a number of years
- HarryHirsch 14y ago
  NIH funding trends: http://www.faseb.org/Policy-and-Government-Affairs/Data-Compilations/NIH-Research-Funding-Trends.aspx http://www.faseb.org/Policy-and-Government-Affairs/Data-Comp... SUNY budget: http://chronicle.com/article/NY-Budget-Takes-Another-Bite/126968/ http://chronicle.com/article/NY-Budget-Takes-Another-Bite/12... "Didn't get expected increase" is equivalent to a budget cut, because the time horizon at a university is long - you hire a tenure-track professor in a suitable field, give the person startup money and hope he will stay and get grants in. It takes several years to recover this kind of investment. You simply cannot have politicians dick every year with the operating budget, it makes planning impossible. That is in fact what has put space research in the US far behind. That sort of project takes decades from proposal to wrapup.
  - protomyth 14y ago
    NIH is one research funding source and SUNY is one school system. I am wondering about the overall trend. How is it dicking with the budget when you get the same amount as last year? Not a lot of people can say that these days.
    - cinquemb 14y ago
      The Atlantic did a piece on decrease in government funding trends back in january: http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/the-38-states-that-have-slashed-higher-education-spending/267427/ http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/01/the-38-s... And Think Progress shows some stats on another indicator of decrease in government funding trends (tuition hikes): http://thinkprogress.org/education/2013/03/19/1741231/states-higher-education-cuts/ http://thinkprogress.org/education/2013/03/19/1741231/states... The Kansas City Fed also did a report on a periphery indicator of decrease in government funding trends (student loan defaults) and more: http://www.kansascityfed.org/publicat/reswkpap/pdf/rwp%2012-05.pdf http://www.kansascityfed.org/publicat/reswkpap/pdf/rwp%2012-... And when you consider that universities have been raising their tuition prices by 5%+ per year for decades, if they get the same check as they received last year means that they will have less money to spend.