US: Colleges cut instruction spending

Most of America's colleges are gradually paring back their investments in classroom teaching, an analysis of federal data shows, writes Mary Beth Marklein in USA Today. And all colleges have in recent years been spending a greater share of their revenue on expenses other than instruction, including computing centres, student services, administrative salaries and lawn care.

Those are among findings of a report released last week that sheds light on where various types of colleges and universities get their money and how they spend it. While instruction remains the largest share of education and general spending at most colleges, much of the revenue raised by increasing tuition is not going to that core function of higher education, it concludes.

With one notable exception, "students are paying for more and arguably getting less, particularly in the classroom," says Jane Wellman, director of the Delta Cost Project, a Washington-based non-profit that released the report. It is based on federally reported data from 2002 to 2006 of nearly 2,000 public and private institutions that enrol about 75% of all college students. The exception is private research universities, which spend more per student than any other sector, but which enrol fewer students overall than most other institutions.
Full report on the USA Today site