Dive Brief:
- The Campaign for the Future of Higher Education argues in a new working paper that faculty are central to student success and schools should be allocating funding accordingly.
- Inside Higher Ed reports the group, made up of faculty unions and academic associations, finds schools are paying proportionally less on instruction by relying more on lower-paid non-tenured faculty.
- The campaign also points out that in 1990 the number of faculty was double that of administrators whereas in 2010 the two groups just about matched in size.
Dive Insight:
The idea of administrative excess has permeated conversations about higher education spending in recent years.
One member of the campaign describes the situation as a “remarkable irony" where tuition and debt are increasing and proportionally less money is spent by institutions for instruction.
Publicly funded institutions get attention from politicians urging a slimmer budget and both public and private schools have been criticized by faculty for the size of administration, especially when faculty wages remain stagnant or grow slowly. Presidents of major institutions also have been under the microscope for salaries as well as benefits.