Monday, January 12, 2009

Chart of the week: 01/12/09

This graph displays the ratio of the median number of students (FTE) enrolled per executive/administrator/manager, by school type, since 2004. Only schools with enrollments of 500 or more were considered in the calculation. The downward trend exhibited in the graph is indicative of:



a) lower enrollments

b) a greater number of senior administrators, or

c) a combination of the two.

For public 4-year schools, the median enrollment increased by average of 1.6% between 2004 and 2007, while the median number of senior administrators grew by an average of 1.8% annually over the same time period. For private not-for-profit schools, the median enrollment shrank by an average of 6% per year, while the median number of senior administrators grew by 3.4% annually over the time period. For the private for-profit schools, the median enrollment decreased by an average of 2.6% per year, while the number of senior administrators increased by 7% annually, since 2004.

Source of data: IPEDS

View past charts of the week here.

3 comments:

capeman said...

Looks like the public colleges are giving the best value here -- not the privates, including the for-profits.

02 said...

Depends on how you define value. Is there any analysis available on the average/median salary public vs private?

capeman said...

By "value" here I mean many more students per administrator at the public universities. The public universities beating the private non-profits by more than a factor of two.

Of course, some people might say that having more administrators per student is a benefit.

Having worked at both public and private universities, my view is that more administrators is not a good thing, and that the public universities give better "value" for the money they spend.

Judging by the salaries for faculty and presidents at private vs. public universities, I very much doubt that public universities pay administrative and support staff as well as private universities do.