Administration bloat: While enrollment at the nation's leading universities grew an average of 15 percent from 1993 to 2007, the number of full-time administrators per 100 students ballooned by 39 percent, said Jay P. Greene, a senior fellow with the conservative Goldwater Institute of Arizona.
"Inflation-adjusted spending on administration per student increased by 61 percent during the same period, while instructional spending per student rose 39 percent," wrote Greene, who also heads the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas. They blame government for these trends, but somebody is making the decision to curtail faculty or student services.
From U.S. News & World Report, "Is a College Education Worth the Price?" Numerous studies show that tuition, which has far outpaced the cost of living, has been spent on things other than classroom teaching. Administrative staffs and lavish facilities top the list. After years of building palatial campuses, states faced with budget cuts now find that they are stuck with the fancy athletic center and have to slash faculty, resulting in packed classrooms detrimental to the learning experience. Doesn't seem like classroom teaching is much of a priority.
And in the Christian Science Monitor more indication of misplace focus of the use of money: We hope this will be a wake-up call that colleges are asking for lots of money and a major sacrifice by families, but in too many places they have really abdicated their responsibility to direct students to what they need to learn for success after graduation. It is not about learning for life.
The problem in Maryland. One might think that as enrollments increase, universities would need relatively fewer administrators per student since they could spread those fixed costs over a larger base. Instead, the opposite is occurring. As universities increase their enrollment and receive more money, they expand the ranks of administrators even more rapidly.
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