Raising the Ratio

Universities across the nation have been witnessing a decrease in the ratio of faculty (including professors, lecturers, and researchers) to administrators (deans, provosts, IT personnel, and the like), reflecting a tendency towards organizational complexity and expanded goals. Harvard, among a few small private universities, has actually been following quite the opposite trend, with our faculty to administrator ratio rising by almost 20 percent to 1.9 in the period from 2000 to 2012.

Harvard has historically had a low faculty to administrator ratio, well below its peer average to start the last decade at 1.57 to one. Our recent gains are only just now bringing us close to the mean. But this is progress. And the University’s evident commitment to the expansion of faculty positions is encouraging. Limiting administrative growth in favor of faculty investment enhances the student experience and improves Harvard’s research output. It also limits administrative costs often met through hikes in tuition—although, naturally, some spending on administrative expansion is necessary for an efficiently functioning world-class university.

Increased spending nationwide on new administrators has lead to “administrative bloat,” a condition marked by a skyrocketing number of deans charged with increasingly narrow and specialized responsibilities. Even here at Harvard, the Medical School has seen its number of both academic and administrative deans rise from one to nine since the 1960s, and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences reached over 3,000 administrators and staff. Many have criticized this ubiquitous expansion as unnecessary, and in fact, one study at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities exposed the redundancy in the duties of its school’s eight vice presidents, culminating in the university’s decision to eliminate a position.

Administrative expansion, which includes personnel involved in the admissions process and other non-faculty positions, has been linked to higher tuition costs. Limiting staff growth in the way that Harvard has in the past decade helps to keep an already staggering tuition sum down. As we continue to grow and admit record class sizes, a growing share of faculty preserves opportunities for students.

Nevertheless, we do recognize the importance of administrators in our University setting. It would be shortsighted to bifurcate all employees into good faculty and bad staff. Administrative expansion manifests itself in everything from our vital IT department, a sector nonexistent decades ago, to HarvardX, with its goal of making education available to all.

Acknowledging the school’s need for a developed administrative infrastructure, we appreciate that Harvard seems to be directing its primary focus toward strengthening the quality of its core education. This emphasis should bolster both Harvard’s pedagogy and its contributions to academia and the world.