Transcript Document
Higher Education Costs and Cost Drivers
Looking forward – by revisiting the past….
Canadian Institutional Research and Planning Association
Fredericton, New Brunswick, October 23-25, 2011
Ken Snowdon
This presentation is based on a paper available at
http://www.snowdonandassociates.ca/presentations.htm
Purpose
shed some light on the challenges
associated with developing estimates
of higher education costs… to
help identify key cost drivers
help inform the debate about costcontainment… “ greater differentiation”
illustrate the problems/challenges
associated with ‘targeted’ envelopes
Overview
Costs and complexity
Definitions
Challenges
Cost studies & Formula program weights
Major Cost Allocation Drivers
Faculty time
Student / Faculty norms
Data challenges
Concluding remarks
Costs and Complexity
Perspectives on cost
• student
• government
• institution
Complexity – a typical department
• multiple activities, multiple ‘programs’
• “joint products” = teaching, research, service
Cost studies
Historical perspective
Key issue – “joint products”
Canada – most faculty time funded from
operating (department) funds
U.S. faculty time for sponsored research
funded by sponsor
U.K. faculty time for sponsored research
funded by sponsor
Cost studies and formula weights
Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario,
Saskatchewan
Ohio, Texas, and the Delaware Project
(Middaugh)
United Kingdom - England
Peter Leslie’s view of cost studies…
“… the real importance of costs studies
has been to take a formula derived by
trial-and-error and clothe it in fancy
dress. The need to avoid goring oxen is
a politically powerful motive, and in
practice the most important consideration
in setting formula weights has been to
devise a rule which endorses, in the main,
the existing distribution of funds between
recipient institutions.”
Illustration of Formula Weights by Discipline Area
Actual, Estimated and Imputed Formula Weights
Nova Scotia
Total Cost
Department /
Discipline
Social Science
Sociology
Psychology
Political Science
Economics
Geography
Human Ecology / Nutrition
Child & Youth Study
Social Work
Journalism
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.25
1.25
1.50
1.75
Ontario
Total Cost
General & Upper
Years
Ist Year
1.50
1.00
1.50
1.00
1.50
1.00
1.50
1.00
1.50
1.00
1.50
1.00
1.50
1.00
1.50
1.00
1.50
1.00
1.50
1.00
Texas
Total Cost
Lower
Quebec
Instruction
Cost
U.K
Instruction
Cost
1.07
1.07
1.07
1.07
1.07
2.11
1.0
1.0
Upper
1.0
1.07
1.07
1.25
1.25
1.50
1.75
1.75
1.75
2.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
1.50
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
2.00
Law
1.25
1.50
1.50
3.92
3.92
1.41
Pharmacy
Nursing
Physiotherapy
Occupational Therapy
Medicine
Life Sciences
Dentistry
1.50
1.75
1.75
2.00
4.00
4.00
5.50
2.00
2.00
1.50
1.50
5.00
1.00
5.00
2.00
2.00
1.50
1.50
5.00
2.00
5.00
1.27
1.96
4.53
2.35
1.41
1.77
2.32
2.32
4.07
1.7
7.96
Psychology B.Sc.
Mathematics
Geography B.Sc.
Recreation & Phy.Ed.
Computer Science
Biology
Chemistry
Geology/Earth Sciences
Physics
Oceanography
1.00
1.74
2.95
1.41
2.11
2.11
1.41
2.11
2.11
2.11
2.11
1.7
1.7
1.7
Middaugh - Delaware Project
Saskatchewan
Instruction Cost
Instruction Cost
By Type of Institution
(implicit)
Research Doctoral Comprehensive
Doctoral
Masters
Undergrad
Social Sciences
5.00
2.37
0.99
5.00
2.37
0.99
1.1
1.2
1.2
5.00
2.37
0.99
1.1
1.2
1.1
5.00
2.37
0.99
5.00
2.37
0.99
1.03
1.09
Math and Physical
1.29
1.29
1.29
1.21
1.29
1.21
1.29
1.29
1.29
2.63
Sciences
3.36
3.36
3.36
3.13
3.36
3.65
3.36
3.36
3.36
6.07
6.07
6.07
4.54
6.07
6.11
6.07
6.07
6.07
1.33
3.00
-
3.71
3.88
4.0
1.99
2.06
1.87
1.87
8.33
5.58
6.43
10.67
4.0
8.33
5.58
-
-
1.1
1.0
1.0
1.9
1.5
1.6
1.8
1.7
1.9
1.9
1.5
1.7
1.6
1.3
1.5
Excluded
2.8
2.9
2.8
Excluded
Excluded
Humanities
Philosophy
Classics
History
English
Religious Studies
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.25
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.00
1.50
1.50
1.50
1.50
1.50
1.00
1.70
1.07
1.07
1.07
1.00
1.07
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.01
1.01
1.01
1.01
1.01
2.38
2.38
2.38
2.38
2.38
4.63
4.63
4.63
4.63
4.63
0.9
1.0
1.0
1.1
1.0
1.1
1.0
0.9
1.0
The full table is available in the paper http://www.snowdonandassociates.ca/presentations.htm
Cost studies – findings
Differences in methodologies
total costs, instruction costs, faculty time
Units of student activity
Similarities in relative costs at the
discipline level
Acknowledgement that cost studies
provide ‘gross estimates’….
the ‘core’ funding mechanism is (usually)
block grant
Cost studies – findings
Middaugh’s Delaware project
80% of “instructional” cost differences
among institutions is due to discipline
‘mix’
…it is possible to examine a research
university and a baccalaureate college,
each focused on the social sciences and
humanities, and find no difference in
overall unit instructional costs ….
Middaugh’s – findings
Costs are highest in engineering and nursing.
Instructional costs in the physical sciences are in the
next highest level and are comparable to those in
education, business, and art.
Service departments (e.g., English and mathematics)
are among those with the lowest instructional costs, and
their costs are comparable with those in the social
sciences.
Middaugh, et.al., p.18
Program / Department Cost Studies
– allocation drivers
Faculty time
Salary differentials by discipline
Program norms
Student to faculty ratio
Cost Studies - Key Allocation Drivers
Allocation of Faculty Time
Other
Administration
Service
Research
Teaching
0%
10%
Canada
20%
30%
United Kingdom
40%
50%
United States
Changing Academic Profession Survey, 2007, Canada n=~1000
Allocation of Faculty Time
Cost Studies - Key Allocation Drivers
- Faculty Compensation by Discipline
All Subjects
Social Sciences
Math & Physical Sc.
Humanities
Health Professions
Fine Arts
Engineering & Appl. Sc.
Education
Agric & Biological Sc.
90%
Full Professor
95%
100%
Associate Professor
105%
110%
Assistant Professor
115%
Lecturer
120%
125%
130%
All Ranks Combined
Source: Statistics Canada, as reported in the CAUT Almanac 2010-2011, Table 2.7
Data Challenges
Numerators – cost / expenditures
Jurisdictional differences in financial practices and PSE
structure
Institutional differences in organization and financial
practices
No or limited department/discipline data
Denominators – enrolment
No standard unit of FTE enrolment
Differing program requirements/standards
Need department counts by year-level and identified
concentrations
Faculty
Alignment of CIP and discipline codes
Need faculty data by department/discipline
Further Research
Determining to what extent the discipline salary
differential explains differences in institutional cost
comparisons by region, and/or by type of institution;
Exploring the concept of discipline teaching norms and,
using appropriate data, determine if there are
differences in teaching norms in Canada; and
Determining an estimate of how much faculty time,
and resource, is devoted to sponsored research where
faculty time is not reimbursed by the sponsor.
Concluding remarks - CIRPA
Numerators and Denominators
Recognize data limitations,
question data sources
“contextual interpretation”
historical, institutional
Questions
Discussion
This presentation is based on a paper available at
http://www.snowdonandassociates.ca/presentations.htm