In a rare instance of commenting on serious financial issues the on-line publication of a major US research university has published an interesting article that basically outlines the reasons for high tuition fees.
The foremost of the reasons is a steady increase in the number of administrative positions created in the recent past and the increase in compensation awarded.
It mentions that increased enrollment has made for more student advising services and more emphasis on supporting student mental health. Are students examined for mental health problems before being accepted or is the university experience causing them?
"There has been a shift away from paper forms and toward digital documents and accessibility screenings, This requires staff to handle processing and form development." Ergo, digital work is more labor intensive than composing and printing as it was done in the past. Who knew?
On the rare occasion when a major university administrator or professor is shown the door it's regarded as a calamity. Blue collar employees that maintain state-of-the-art facilities and infrastructure are made redundtant every day and laid off.
It must be remembered that every dollar that goes to a university, be it from a state budget, government grant, tuition, patent award, etc. in the end goes to a human individual, an overpaid, decorative president for example.
Perhaps the argument could be made that compensation for university administrators should match that of similar business figures or the university people would run away to the commercial world. That doesn't seem to be a valid analysis. It's more likely that administrators look at dog-eat-dog capitalism as a stressful environment that makes their campus life look idyllic. The route seldom goes in the reverse direction. Universities inevitably get their admin people from somewhere else in the higher educational environment, not the business world.
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