(from InsideHigherEd):
By Steven Mintz
Yale spends $117,473 per student on instruction and student services, plus another $12,856 for academic support, according to CollegeMeasures.org, It served 12,336 students in 2014 with a student-faculty ratio of 6:1. Roughly 75 percent of its classes have fewer than 20 students.
Ohio State University spends $18,870 per FTE student on instruction and student services and $1,969 for academic support. It serves 51,864 FTE students and has a student-faculty ratio is 18:1. Thirty percent of its classes have less than 20 students.
Per FTE student spending on instruction and student services at Cal State Long Beach is $7,735 plus another $1,507 on academic support. It serves 30,271 students with a student faculty ratio of 24: 1; 22 percent of classes are smaller than 20.
Higher education is among this society’s most stratified institutions, topped by a hierarchy of prestigious private research universities and elite liberal arts colleges that invest far greater resources in instruction, student services, and academic support than other institutions can afford. Indeed, there is an inverse relationship between institutional resources and the needs of the students, defined in terms of the students’ family income, high school preparation, class rank, average college board scores, and transfer status. And the situation is worsening. Over time, there has been growing inequality in resources per FTE student. To add to the irony, students at the most selective institutions pay a much lower proportion of the cost of their education. CONTINUE READING HERE