I worked at my university after graduation for 2 months (as an employee; well funded project). A project that should have had no more than 4 developers had 3x that many. Tool 2.5x as long to finish (I left in the middle). Crippling, dysfunctional politics, lunch meetings with stake holders, useless field trips. I think everyone involved knew what was going on and didn't care.
Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching
241–250 of 296 posts
Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching
#242Earlier quoted context omitted.
30 students? Many of my lectures at UWaterloo in Canada were closer to 300. I guess that's why my tuition was only $10k.
Tuition in Canada is heavily subsidized, 80% of the cost is covered by tax payers.
According to their audited financial statements [0] grants accounted for only $388 million against $917 million in expenses (or about 42%).
[0] https://uwaterloo.ca/finance/sites/ca.finance/files/uploads/...
Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching
#243Earlier quoted context omitted.
Where are you seeing tuition of $20k or $50k? Public universities in state are closer to $10k a year, even out of state isn't usually anywhere near $50k.
My alma mater, a northeast, private university ranked in the top 50. It was actually ranked higher when I was there and cost $20k. Now tuition alone is just shy of $50k.
There are private high schools that cost tens of thousands of dollars too. The OP was talking as if this was normal. The average student is going going to a state school and paying somewhere near $10k a year for tuition.
If you can't get a scholarship and it's not a top 10 school $50k per year probably isn't worth paying.
Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching
#244Yes. This is why I refuse to donate to my alma mater anymore. Tuition has nearly tripled in in fourteen years while they are still teaching the same number of students with roughly the same or fewer full time faculty. There's something seriously wrong with that and this is a huge symptom of it. Until they get their shit together, they need less money coming in, not more. This is supposed to be a nonprofit institution…
> donate to my alma mater I've heard of people doing this but why would you ever have donated your money to someone you have already paid? I wouldn't donate to my pizza place, my doctor, or my barber. Why would a college be different?
Donating to your Alma Matter signals that (1) you succeeded and (2) that your Alma Matter helped you succeed. Given enough donations, this boosts your own prestige.
Or, reverse this: if I go to a school and that school suddenly starts to suck, then I will be tainted with the school sucking.
Either way, it's a problem of credentialism.
Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching
#245Earlier quoted context omitted.
The one you are looking for is student/faculty ratio. They used to promote that until they realized they could puff up their ratio by including staff as well. Similar to the unemployment rate excluding people who can work but have stopped looking. SO much BS in the US.
Regarding academia, what countries do you suggest and why?
Germany, With some modifications: not completely free but very low tuition costs with adjusted repayment plans based on the income upon graduation.
Why? Because most folks dont really want to start their professional lives with massive debt right out of the gates.
Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching
#246I work in the administration for a top public US research University. The increase in size of University administration and bureaucracy is due to a number of factors. One is certainly unnecessary employment and over-employment. Not only at high levels, with VP's, Assistant VP's, Assistant Vice VP's, Chancellors, Vice Chancellor's, Executive VP's, Directors of XYZ, etc, but also at low levels where the work done by 3…
I feel like University of Phoenix, a for-profit university, is a bit unfair of a comparison to a not-for-profit university. Especially when a significant portion of for-profit universities aren't properly accredited, and actually represent a very significant portion of student loan obligations (see https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/09/the-fai... ).
The point is that alternatives are appearing that provide education without the mini-city like atmosphere and cost of the traditional university. You are absolutely correct though, many for profit alternatives are not accredited and some of them can be quite predatory. I believe the poster was referencing University of Phoenix as pure "education service." They are accredited.
A lot of people who have been to university would probably defend the mini-city model as integral to the experience. More pragmatic folks might argue otherwise.
Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching
#247Earlier quoted context omitted.
My alma mater, a northeast, private university ranked in the top 50. It was actually ranked higher when I was there and cost $20k. Now tuition alone is just shy of $50k.
There are private high schools that cost tens of thousands of dollars too. The OP was talking as if this was normal. The average student is going going to a state school and paying somewhere near $10k a year for tuition. If you can't get a scholarship and it's not a top 10 school $50k per year probably isn't worth paying.
Most of the public schools around me are ~$10k a semester, not a year.
Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching
#248Earlier quoted context omitted.
True that there is an expectation of the many non-academic needs of students is also well served. In Norway, this is done by an organization separate from the university ('Studentsamskipnad' or Student Welfare Organization). It is responsible for housing, health- services, food et.c. Students pay their semester fee (<100USD) to this organization (no tuition). Possibly this helps for keeping focus on academic needs in…
In the US this is often handled by using funds from educational loans. I knew many years ago one or two people in college who took the money they got from educational loans and used it as a fund to acquire and sell large quantities of narcotics, which they built into a lifestyle business while they were at university.
I don't know how common it is anymore, but back in the 1990s it was completely possible to use a student loan to get room and board and then cancel your room and board in the first couple days of school and get a big fat check. A fair number of people did this just because off campus housing and food were cheaper.
I wonder if students can still easily do this.
Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching
#249Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't believe folks would even accept a metric like "student:staff" rather than class-size. I would have no care about the ratio of myKid:janitor for example, no offense to janitors intended.
The one you are looking for is student/faculty ratio. They used to promote that until they realized they could puff up their ratio by including staff as well. Similar to the unemployment rate excluding people who can work but have stopped looking. SO much BS in the US.
These are just metrics - often used for specialized or internal calculations. The unemployment rate (excl. discouraged workers) is primarily an Econ metric that the press has fixated on. There's plenty of other metrics out there, but mass media doesn't care enough to dig deep enough to find out.
Re: Universities are broke – let’s cut the pointless admin and get back to teaching
#250What part of this is due to over-regulation and grant requirements? Seems huge.