The top three culprits eating up research time are writing grant reports, personnel hiring and revenue management. Other labor-intensive tasks include equipment and supply purchasing, subcontracting, collaboration and cost accounting. Compliance issues also account for research hours, especially since health privacy and home security laws regarding “select agents”—potentially hazardous biological materials—have come into play.

The Faculty Burden Study was sponsored by the Federal Demonstration Partnership, a group of federal agencies and more than 100 research institutions dedicated to decreasing the paperwork required to do scientific research. Its goal is to improve research productivity without compromising the role of stewardship. The group has not singled out any one cause for the burdensome regulatory system, but says instead that the accumulation of many tasks is taking its toll.

One solution may be to hire more administrators: 97 percent of the 6,083 university researchers who responded to the survey said administrative personnel could handle at least some of their federal grant management.

Also, 76 percent would be willing to take money from direct research to pay such administrators. The result of transferring this responsibility, they estimated, would be an additional four hours of active research each week.

You can see a slide show presentation of survey results at http://thefdp.org/Faculty_Burden_Survey.pdf.

From 1993 to 2003, according to National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data, colleges’ use of part-time faculty to fill out their teaching ranks jumped from 40 percent to 46 percent. In no other category of higher education employment was there a comparable increase, although colleges rely on part-time workers across the board, from top administrators down to clerical and paraprofessional staff.

The NCES study, “Changes in Staff Distribution and Salaries of Full-Time Employees in Postsecondary Institutions: Fall 1993 to 2003,” analyzed whether staffing costs, which are the largest share of overall institutional expenditures, are to blame for soaring tuition and fees. Between 1970 and 2001, the report notes, the “share per student of total education and general revenue from government appropriations for public degree-granting institutions declined from 59 percent to 46 percent, while the share from tuition and fees increased from 16 to 23 percent.”

The data show that salary increases were modest at most levels. After adjusting for inflation, the overall average salary of full-time postsecondary faculty grew by 13 percent in the decade studied. (The researchers did not have data on part-time salaries.) This compares with a U.S. growth rate of 11 percent in annual salaries for full-time employees. But the average was much higher at the top of the hierarchy—17 percent for executives and managers and only 5 percent for clerks, secretaries and professional support providers.

Researchers also found that a common way for institutions to achieve savings was by contracting out skilled crafts and service/maintenance positions, which showed the slowest salary growth over the 10 years—just 3 percent.

Another interesting finding is that the total number of “nonresident alien staff” employed as instructors and research assistants more than doubled in this period. U.S. institutions enrolled increasing numbers of foreign graduate students who made up more than half (60 percent) of the instructor teaching force in 2003.

To see the whole report, go to http://nces.ed.gov/pubs2006/2006152.pdf.

Student debt index

Average student loan debt, 2004: $19,200

Average student load debt (in constant dollars), 1993: $9,250

Number of students carrying debt of $40,000 or more, 2004: 77,552

Number of students carrying debt of $40,000 or more, 1993: 7,353

Percentage of four-year public college graduates with debt today: 65

Percentage of four-year public college graduates with debt in the 1990s: Less than 33

Money Congress cut from federal student loan programs this past spring: $12 billion

Resulting increase for average undergraduate borrower: $1,800

Percentage of all dependent undergraduates who own a credit card: 56

Undergraduate students who use a credit card to pay for tuition: 1 in 4

Median credit card debt for one out of every four students: $1,000

Percentage of card holders who carry a monthly balance after charging tuition: 55

Graduating from college debt-free: Priceless