Sadly, quite a lot of tuition seems to be supporting university employees who simply don't care.
A friend of mine wanted to go to school after working for over a decade. She went to the University of Miami, got to the Continuing Education department and noticed not a single person on duty but a taped piece of paper saying everyone was working remotely due to CoVid. In 2022! Headed on to the location for Undergrad Admissions and was given a website where she could get more info.
For a school that charges $65K+ a year.
It happened again at a college in DC where all that she could get was a website versus speaking to an admissions counselor, getting a group tour on some particular date, etc.
Even though about half of the university employees encountered were college students, their attitude of just cashing a paycheck and keeping the seats warm is both a cost and a reflection of the quality of administration.
So much of University tuition now seems to be going to maintain salaries and perks for layers upon layers of employees and administrators versus student benefits.
I’ve noticed something similar at the company I work for and I think I have an explanation. Basically, upper management doesn’t understand what it takes to accomplish tasks anymore due to maligned incentives from middle management. Middle management wants to progress up the corporate ladder, which it does by growing its team size. E.g. by growing a team of 10 into a team of 100 with new layers of management below. This happens even if the scope of work remains largely unchanged. As a result, no one knows how many people it takes to accomplish tasks. There are so many people that ownership becomes and issue. People can simply pass the buck. And any sense of autonomy fades as more people are brought on to do a dwindling pool of actual work. The end result is large, inefficiently run bureaucracies.
A friend of mine wanted to go to school after working for over a decade. She went to the University of Miami, got to the Continuing Education department and noticed not a single person on duty but a taped piece of paper saying everyone was working remotely due to CoVid. In 2022! Headed on to the location for Undergrad Admissions and was given a website where she could get more info. For a school that charges $65K+ a year.
It happened again at a college in DC where all that she could get was a website versus speaking to an admissions counselor, getting a group tour on some particular date, etc.
Even though about half of the university employees encountered were college students, their attitude of just cashing a paycheck and keeping the seats warm is both a cost and a reflection of the quality of administration.
So much of University tuition now seems to be going to maintain salaries and perks for layers upon layers of employees and administrators versus student benefits.