Determining the influence of the contributing factors on the growth of administrative expenditures at public land grant research universities with medical schools

This study investigated the trends of the growth of administrative costs a Public Land Grant Research I Universities with medical schools and the factors that influenced the growth for a twenty-three year time period, 1975 to 1997. When the growth of higher education administration appeared excessive, it was often referred to as administrative bloat. A case study of the University of Kentucky was conducted to explore administrative growth at one of the sample universities and the events that influenced the administrative cost patterns.;Four measures representing administrative costs were examined: constant 1995 dollar administrative expenditures, constant 1995 dollar administrative expenditures per full time equivalent (FTE) enrollment, the percent of administrative expenditures to total educational and general (E&G) expenditures, and the percent of administrative expenditures to instruction expenditures. Each measure viewed growth of administrative expenditures differently although the outcomes from analyses resembled each other. This study did not attempt to determine the best measure but rather to determine if the combination of contributing factors for each measure's model was influencing administrative growth and what these influences were.;The U.S. Department of Education's National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) HEGIS survey and its successor, IPEDS were the primary data source. The sample universities were another important source of data.;This study showed that the combination of contributing factors did influence administrative costs in the sample of thirteen Public Land Grant Research I Universities with medical schools regardless of the measure of administrative costs. The case study revealed that the influences to the growth of administrative costs were more complex than the combination of twelve factors.;This study also found that administrative costs differed across the sample of thirteen universities for each of the four measures of administrative costs for the twenty-three years. These findings demonstrate that institutions of higher education are unique entities.;This study found that administrative bloat was not the case for the Public Land Research I Universities with medical schools with FTE enrollment less than 40,000 students. However, the sample universities with FTE enrollment greater than 40,000 students experienced administrative bloat between 1975 and 1997.