Inside Higher Ed has the scoop.
the majority of full-time professional employees in higher education are in administrative rather than faculty jobs.
A university consists of a faculty attached to a fundraising apparatus, where it used to be the other way around.
Mar 12 2008
All the parents of multiple children I know admit that they stress less about - and do less for - the later arrivals: "We went crazy baby-proofing when we had our first baby; but by the time his sister came along, who had the energy?" Does anyone know if there is any data showing that reduced parental safety input for...
Mar 12 2008
Here's a neat piece on the peculiar status of John McCain in Poole and Rosenthal's ambitious empirical analysis of Congress:Keith Poole and Howard Rosenthal, the two authors of the most widely used estimates of the ideal points of members of Congress, can help square the circle on McCain to some extent. On pages 2-3, ...
Mar 12 2008
Inside Higher Ed has the scoop. the majority of full-time professional employees in higher education are in administrative rather than faculty jobs. A university consists of a faculty attached to a fundraising apparatus, where it used to be the other way around.
READER COMMENTS
Todd
Mar 12 2008 at 1:55pm
If the fundraising apparatus to which which facutly is attached is growing in size, then why is the cost of going to a university going upward so rapidly?
I would submit to you that the university is actually a faculty attached to a fundspending apparatus, and one whose appetite for new funds to spend seems to be growing at an alarming rate.
8
Mar 12 2008 at 2:34pm
The university increasingly mirrors the public school system.
randy
Mar 12 2008 at 3:20pm
school sucks.
it’s too bad it took me 16 years of schooling and 10 years in the workforce to realize this.
manuelg
Mar 12 2008 at 4:07pm
> If the fundraising apparatus to which which faculty is attached is growing in size, then why is the cost of going to a university going upward so rapidly?
Because, evidently, they are successfully mining one particular source of funds, among others.
Unit
Mar 12 2008 at 5:40pm
Often administrators are listed as faculty which bumps up the average professor salary quite a bit.
Dr. T
Mar 12 2008 at 7:40pm
The same process (administrative staff becoming the largest component of total staff) is occurring in the public schools, too. In Shelby County, TN (Memphis area), instructors of all types comprise 71% of employees. Teachers used to comprise over 80% of employees.
The trend towards more administrators is worse in hospitals. Hospitals have fewer beds, fewer doctors and nurses, but more administrators than ever. The administrators blame this on government regulations and the need to deal with dozens of insurance plans. But, strangely, private labs and doctors offices haven’t needed 50% increases in non-clinical staff.
Patrick
Mar 12 2008 at 11:16pm
“school sucks. it’s too bad it took me 16 years of schooling and 10 years in the workforce to realize this.”
While I don’t fully agree with this opinion, I completely understand why you feel this way. It wasn’t until college that I found any of my educational experience worthwhile. But even in undergrad – at a top-25 school – the quality of both students AND instructors was marginal at best.
But how is work any better? Large companies are giant bureaucracies (not much different than the government), and small companies are often staffed by morons. Unless you happen to get lucky and work in a firm with incredibly talented folks.
Gary Rogers
Mar 12 2008 at 11:41pm
This is why you do not feed the animals. Rather than making friendly animals, it creates an obsession with the next handout. The real disservice is not the relative size of the fundraising apparatus, but a change in the whole focus of the organization.
Matt
Mar 13 2008 at 9:22am
Colleges have an impossible task. At the touch of my fingers, I can discuss important issues with the major thinkers, past or present.
If a college thinks they compete because students are willing to give up the internet and drive through 10 miles of traffic, walk across campus, and get info from a barely noticable professor?
No, and students who attend traditional college will be left farther behind in this efficiency trap. The only reason anyone should attend lectures these days, is to insure that the public colleges get their per diem payments from taxpayers, otherwise the expense of the lecture hall is better spent on the Internet.
Barkley Rosser
Mar 13 2008 at 12:51pm
The trend is indeed bad, but two caveats are that part of those administrators are staff such as secretaries. Also, the kicker on the faculty part is the trend to part-time faculty.
dearieme
Mar 13 2008 at 1:12pm
Dissolution of the Monasteries – time for, again?
Comments are closed.