(The Center Square) – An analysis by the website The College Fix shows Vanderbilt University employed 517 full-time administrators and support staff in the 2021-22 academic year for every 1,000 undergraduate students, a more than 1-to-2 ratio.
The ratio comes from a total of 3,516 full-time administrators and support staff in the most recent data filed with the federal Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System compared to a total full-time undergraduate student total of 6,983 along 1,149 teaching and instructional staff or 164 educators per 1,000 students.
“No school should have that many administrators,” the website quoted University of Tennessee law professor Glenn Reynolds as saying. “Since universities are nonprofits, they don’t pay dividends to shareholders. Instead, they tend to plow ‘profits’ into staff and buildings.”
The College Fix reported that, in total, Vanderbilt paid $285,6 million plus an estimated 30% in fringe benefits ($85.7 million) for a total of $371.3 million in total compensation for employees.
“Colleges shouldn’t be wasting money on highly paid administrators whose jobs have little to nothing to do with whether a student will get a good education and a good job upon graduating,” Beacon Center President and Chief Executive Justin Owen told The College Fix about the data.
