Factors like more investment in career services or spending on amenities to attract students are boosting administrative costs, said Paul Weinstein Jr., a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute, who authored a 2023 report on administrative spending. Increasing costs related to regulation and compliance are also contributing.
“Most schools, when they’ve faced issues like this before, have spent more on student outreach and tried to grow their way out of it,” Weinstein said.
That’s a problem because many schools are staring down declining high school class sizes that are projected to result in fewer college students in the very near future. Some schools have boosted revenues via increased online enrollment, and some have targeted international students. But the online education market is saturated, and international universities are doing a better job of competing for students than American schools, Weinstein said.
“All the ways schools have previously used to grow their way out of the problem are not going to be available,” he said.
