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I'd like to echo drjesusphd and ask if you could point us to any good information you've found on increasing per-student expenditures. My university likes to ju

by cfqycwz 11y ago

I'd like to echo drjesusphd and ask if you could point us to any good information you've found on increasing per-student expenditures. My university likes to justify increasing tuition by pointing to a decrease in the proportion of a student's education that is funded by the state. The implication, is that per-student state funding has gone down and that's why tuition is going up, but state funding per student has remained relatively steady in inflation-adjusted terms for decades. It leads one to wonder what exactly they're spending all the extra money on. I have yet to look into the numbers in greater detail but if you could point me toward some good sources it would be much appreciated.

nhebb 11y ago
> It leads one to wonder what exactly they're spending all the extra money on. I just looked up the operating budget for my alma mater (Oregon State University), and if I'm reading it correctly, administrative costs are about 1/3 of the total. Interestingly, the direct instruction and research portion increased 5% since last year whereas the administration portion increased 15%. And looking back 10 years, the the direct instruction and research costs increased 85%, whereas admin costs increased 110%. So the admin : education costs ratio appears to be slowly increasing over time.
- abandonliberty 11y ago
  This is the same as in any organization. The wealth filters to those who run it.
mjn 11y ago
The funding numbers I've found for the University of California system are that per-student expenditures are roughly flat, and that tuition increases are almost 1-for-1 offsets for decreasing state funding. Here is a little ASCII table of the state funding history I collected in 2012: http://www.kmjn.org/misc/uc_funding.txt http://www.kmjn.org/misc/uc_funding.txt I have no idea how representative this is of other universities, though, and wouldn't be surprised if it isn't.

by cfqycwz 11y ago

nhebb 11y ago

> It leads one to wonder what exactly they're spending all the extra money on. I just looked up the operating budget for my alma mater (Oregon State University), and if I'm reading it correctly, administrative costs are about 1/3 of the total. Interestingly, the direct instruction and research portion increased 5% since last year whereas the administration portion increased 15%. And looking back 10 years, the the direct instruction and research costs increased 85%, whereas admin costs increased 110%. So the admin : education costs ratio appears to be slowly increasing over time.

abandonliberty 11y ago
This is the same as in any organization. The wealth filters to those who run it.

mjn 11y ago

The funding numbers I've found for the University of California system are that per-student expenditures are roughly flat, and that tuition increases are almost 1-for-1 offsets for decreasing state funding. Here is a little ASCII table of the state funding history I collected in 2012: http://www.kmjn.org/misc/uc_funding.txt http://www.kmjn.org/misc/uc_funding.txt I have no idea how representative this is of other universities, though, and wouldn't be surprised if it isn't.