The Changing of the Guard: The Political Economy of Administrative Bloat in American Higher Education

Abstract

The cost of higher education in the United States has risen dramatically in recent years. Numerous explanations have been provided to explain this increase. This paper focuses on one contributing factor: The dramatic growth in the size and expense of non-academic administrators and other university bureaucrats, which has outpaced the growth of expenditures on academic programs. Given that university faculty are typically viewed as the constituency that primarily controls universities, this growth of non-academic employees and expenses appears to be anomalous. Some theories are provided to explain this transition.

Keywords: Academic Bureaucracy, Administrative Bloat, Higher Education, Non-Profit, University Governance

JEL Classification: I2, I20, I22, I23