While college and university stakeholders nationwide fret over staff cuts due to new federal policy, institutions’ bottom lines may very well benefit from a trim, suggests a report from the American Enterprise Institute, a right-leaning think tank.
“Not every ‘administrator’ has a pointless job,” wrote Preston Cooper, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. “But the excessive staff-student ratios at America’s elite public and private colleges ought to inspire a discussion about improving universities’ efficiency.”
Using preliminary data from IPEDS on the staffing levels of colleges in fall 2023, Cooper found that the top 20% of institutions with the highest number of noninstructional staff per 1,000 full-time equivalent students had 45% more “administrators” than instructional faculty.
Some well-resourced institutions are the most guilty of what Copper describes as “administrative bloat.” The University of Ohio had almost one non-instructional staff member for every two students, and the University of Washington in St. Louis boasted more staff than students.
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Cooper chalks up the amount of staff at well-funded schools to the “revenue theory of costs,” which posits that heightened revenue fuels spending and hampers efforts to curb nonessential expenditures. As a result, college tuition and taxpayer funding continue to rise disproportionately compared to the quality of student instruction, Cooper contends.
The AEI post aimed to illustrate why President Donald Trump’ is working to cut federal funding for higher education. For example, recent attempts to significantly reduce federal spending on university research led John Hopkins University to announce potential staff cuts, WYPR reports.
However, institutions are already contracting due to a variety of pressures. The California State University System’s institutions may lay off more staff after the state’s budget created an 8% funding shortfall for the 2025-26 fiscal year. Other private schools, like the University of Dayton and Western Washington University, have announced dozens of layoffs to ensure long-term financial viability.
