Post by Optimus on Aug 3, 2021 12:51:12 GMT -5
So, I saw this vid of possible Illuminati Reptile Ted Cruz today where he was railing against student loan debt:
Though I disagree with him about the need for debt relief, he cited the ridiculous explosion that's occured in university tuition over the past 20 years and mentioned up some interesting stats about University of Michigan, including the fact that they have over 300 staff for "diversity and inclusion."
I've often wondered where the blame lay for the explosion in tuition fees that's happened over the past 20 years. For example, when I graduated from a state school about 20 years ago (geez, has it been that long?), full-time tuition was roughly $1000/semester. So, about $2000 per year, assuming a student only goes fall and spring and taking summers off (as most students do). Today, tuition at that same school is roughly $10,000/year. So, tuition has ballooned by 5X over 20 years, even though enrollment hasn't really increased much (it's actually lower than when I attended).
On a national level, some of the skyrocketing tuition fees may be due to the relaxed standards for approving student loans, as Cruz suggests. From the university's POV, many more students being able to afford university means a significant influx in enrollment, which requires hiring more faculty and staff, expanding facilities/buildings, etc. However, the increase in tuition revenue from all these new students should be compensating for most of that (especially given the millions that come in from sports each year), so that's not really a very believable defense for the sky-rocketing tuition rates.
My suspicion has always been that the absurd tuition hikes are more related to the indefensible expansion of administrative positions and insanely high salaries of upper administration (and sports coaches/staff). So, based on Cruz's statements in the vid above, I decided to do a comparison between UMichigan and an equally ranked (but even larger) Canadian uni.
So, I compared University of Michigan (ranked #17th best uni in the world by US News) and a Canadian university, University of Toronto (Canada's 2nd largest university, tied for #17th best uni in the world) for the sizes of their faculties (i.e., professors and instructors), administrative staff (includes presidents, provosts, deans, secretaries, all other non-faculty), # of students (main campuses only), and tuition fees.
University of Michigan:
6,771 - Faculty
18,986 - Administrative
46,002 - Students
$16,000 - yearly tuition, in-state
University of Toronto:
2,547 - Faculty
4,590 - Administrative
62,864 - Students
$6,100 - yearly tuition, in-province (works out to about $4900/year USD)
So, University of Michigan has roughly 17,000 fewer students than U of T, but somehow needs roughly 14,000 more administrative staff, 4200 more faculty, and over 3 times as much tuition? That's obscene.
Michigan (and any other US school with similar stats) seems incompetently mismanaged. Seems to me they need to fire about 20,000 people. If they cut all the fat from their administrative staff and faculty, they would save over $1 billion a year. That's just one school in one state. Imagine the savings if the self-licking ice cream cone of university administration was slashed nationwide.
Seems to me the unconscionable ballooning of tuition fees is largely due to the absurdly bloated administrations of these schools, not "student loan approvals run amok."
Though I disagree with him about the need for debt relief, he cited the ridiculous explosion that's occured in university tuition over the past 20 years and mentioned up some interesting stats about University of Michigan, including the fact that they have over 300 staff for "diversity and inclusion."
I've often wondered where the blame lay for the explosion in tuition fees that's happened over the past 20 years. For example, when I graduated from a state school about 20 years ago (geez, has it been that long?), full-time tuition was roughly $1000/semester. So, about $2000 per year, assuming a student only goes fall and spring and taking summers off (as most students do). Today, tuition at that same school is roughly $10,000/year. So, tuition has ballooned by 5X over 20 years, even though enrollment hasn't really increased much (it's actually lower than when I attended).
On a national level, some of the skyrocketing tuition fees may be due to the relaxed standards for approving student loans, as Cruz suggests. From the university's POV, many more students being able to afford university means a significant influx in enrollment, which requires hiring more faculty and staff, expanding facilities/buildings, etc. However, the increase in tuition revenue from all these new students should be compensating for most of that (especially given the millions that come in from sports each year), so that's not really a very believable defense for the sky-rocketing tuition rates.
My suspicion has always been that the absurd tuition hikes are more related to the indefensible expansion of administrative positions and insanely high salaries of upper administration (and sports coaches/staff). So, based on Cruz's statements in the vid above, I decided to do a comparison between UMichigan and an equally ranked (but even larger) Canadian uni.
So, I compared University of Michigan (ranked #17th best uni in the world by US News) and a Canadian university, University of Toronto (Canada's 2nd largest university, tied for #17th best uni in the world) for the sizes of their faculties (i.e., professors and instructors), administrative staff (includes presidents, provosts, deans, secretaries, all other non-faculty), # of students (main campuses only), and tuition fees.
University of Michigan:
6,771 - Faculty
18,986 - Administrative
46,002 - Students
$16,000 - yearly tuition, in-state
University of Toronto:
2,547 - Faculty
4,590 - Administrative
62,864 - Students
$6,100 - yearly tuition, in-province (works out to about $4900/year USD)
So, University of Michigan has roughly 17,000 fewer students than U of T, but somehow needs roughly 14,000 more administrative staff, 4200 more faculty, and over 3 times as much tuition? That's obscene.
Michigan (and any other US school with similar stats) seems incompetently mismanaged. Seems to me they need to fire about 20,000 people. If they cut all the fat from their administrative staff and faculty, they would save over $1 billion a year. That's just one school in one state. Imagine the savings if the self-licking ice cream cone of university administration was slashed nationwide.
Seems to me the unconscionable ballooning of tuition fees is largely due to the absurdly bloated administrations of these schools, not "student loan approvals run amok."