[Vegenoid]

> If I had to estimate, I'd say no school currently pays more than 25% of tuition on actual teaching.

Is this based on anything at all? Any direct experience you have, any sources?

I don’t mean to be rude, and I don’t expect everyone to have expertise on something just to talk about it - but when people start using numbers as evidence for their claims, I think a higher standard is warranted.

[rachofsunshine]

I had the same reaction you did, so I looked up the state university budget breakdown [1] for my home state of Florida. In 2021-2022, the most recent year for which they have final numbers, 35.6% of expenditures went to "E&G". That's "Education & General", which according to them is defined as:

"The Education and General budget funds the general instruction, research, and public service operations of the universities. A large portion of the system’s 2022-2023 beginning fund balance reserves ($420.8 million) is dedicated to meeting the 7% reserve requirement set forth in Section 1011.45(1) of the Florida Statutes. Additionally, millions of dollars have been reserved by the SUS to cover the costs associated with the hiring of faculty, maintenance of facilities and equipment, the maintenance of each university’s financial software system, various research enhancement programs and initiatives, and the potential for budget reduction shortfalls."

So this includes both the "actual teaching" and research and other related spending.

We can get more information on page 45, which provides a breakdown of that 35%: 61% of it (~22% of total) is "instruction and research", i.e., at most 22% of the total budget (and probably much less, since FL's public university sector is fairly research-heavy) is spent directly on instruction.

That's probably a little unfair, since instruction needs things like facilities and other admin expenses even in a system that isn't bloated, but the previous poster's 25% number passes a sanity check at least to my eye.

In case you're wondering, the other two big categories of expenses are C&G ("contracts and grants" - so more research expenditures mostly) and "local funds" (a weird mix that includes things like student activities, athletics, and financial aid).

[1] https://www.flbog.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2022-23-OB-...

[wakawaka28]

Thanks for the numbers. It was honestly a lucky guess. I have thought about my own school when estimating it though. I once looked up salaries and tuition numbers and did a rough estimate.

[true_religion]

Most undergraduate degrees don’t really require much in the way of infrastructure.

I went to school as an English major. I struggle to see why the cost of tuition has gone from 6k per semester when I attended to 35k now 20 years later.

Did salaries grow 6x?

[wakawaka28]

No but the dollar is worth about a third of what it was 20 years ago, at best.

You might not even realize the infrastructure that the school uses. Those big buildings are expensive and use tens of thousands of dollars in electricity every month. If your school has shuttles to take people back and forth to the dorms or parking, that is also a constant expense. The library has to pay tens of thousands of dollars for access to academic databases. Computer labs, printing, internet, security, and so on. It all adds up quick.

[echoangle]

https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ tells me the dollar is worth 60% of what it was worth in 2004, that’s a lot more than a third. Where did you get that figure from?

[wakawaka28]

The real rate of inflation is higher than what they say it is. Some products have gotten cheaper due to outsourcing but almost everything that matters (education, health care, housing) has exploded in price over the last 20 years. So has the money supply.

If you want more honest numbers, try https://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/inflation-charts

Realistically, prices are up 40% since the pandemic alone. That's a lot less than 20 years.

Not to be an ass, but if you weren't an adult in 2004, your opinion on this is going to be unduely skewed by propaganda I'm afraid. Not every old person has such a clear view of things either but having lived back then sure makes a big difference in perspective. Idk how anyone with basic number sense who has shopped for anything like a normal person can think inflation is less than 10% per year.

[yial]

I don’t think your link is saying that.

It lists cumulative inflation at 64.x% for that year range.

For what I could buy for $1 in 2004

It would now cost me $1.64 in 2024.

[echoangle]

Yes, now divide 1 by 1.64 to get the value of one 2024 dollar in 2004 and you get 60.98 cents.

[yial]

Apologies,

I misunderstood your comment.

When I originally read it, I for some reason thought you were saying that… well essentially the opposite of what you are saying.