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Finding the source of administrative bloat
According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, a recent study by our friends at the Center for College Affordability and Productivity has shown that non-instructional "support staff" at universities (which include loan counselors and budget analysts) have doubled over the past twenty years, outpacing enrollment. Meanwhile, instructional staff only grew by about 50 percent. CCAP's new report joins several other studies which show similar results concerning the rapid growth of non-teaching employment in higher education--which the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education's Patrick Callan describes as "simply not a trend that's supportable." In a bull market, such hiring might not have seemed problematic, but now, with endowments falling and families tightening their belts, universities need to take a close look at their priorities if they are going to cut costs and improve their operations. CCAP has done yeoman's work in researching and exposing the administrative glut and inefficiencies that contribute to ballooning college costs. This report ought to get a wide hearing.
ACTA has also noted with concern universities' troubling propensity to increase administrative spending at a significantly higher rate than instructional, a phenomenon on display both in Georgia and in Missouri. At the same time, we have praised institutions, like the University of Missouri System, that have attempted to take address this problem.
Posted by Sandra E. Czelusniak on April 21, 2009 at April 21, 2009 09:57 AM
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