Changing Staffing Patterns in Private and Public Research Universities

Abstract

Staffing ratios are an integral part of private sector productivity analysis; but, an underutilized tool in higher education. This paper contains a detailed staffing analysis of Carnegie I and II research universities over the period from 1987 to 2008. The analysis reveals that university administrations took steps to economize on faculty resources by employing more contract teaching faculty and more part time teaching faculty while further economizing on the use of full time nonprofessional staff. In contrast, university administrators significantly increased the number of executive/managerial and professional administrative staff per 100 students over the same period. As a consequence, 60 percent of the real increase in total cost per student among public research universities and 47 percent of the real increase in total cost per student among private research universities from 1987 to 2008 can be explained by rising overhead costs.

Keywords: research universities, staffing ratios, costs

JEL Classification: I23, I28