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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Times World Rankings

https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2020/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats

This has more to do with graduate research.[/quote]

And Michigan comes out ahead once again.[/quote]

[b]As well it should, it spends over a half a billion of your tuition dollars on research every year.[/b]  Funny they don't put that in brochures.[/quote]

[b]Are you saying that's a [i]bad[/b] [/i]thing?

FYI, nearly every school I have ever visited talks about research they do.  It's a hallmark of a top institution and that's how you get faculty that are leaders in the field.[/quote]

Yes I am.  First, they are not up front about it.  M  Most people assume their tuition goes toward their education.  Second, just like anything else, it goes to increase student debt.  Third, if you do the math, it means a sizeable (25%+ or so in this case) percentage of your tuition dollars are probably going to pay researchers and research costs.  [/quote]

What people "assume" is meaningless.

Research is a critical part of every substantive university and a tremendous asset to the students and faculty.  It's shocking to me to hear someone complain about research.

Also, most research is funded by grants.

I don't know where you are coming from.[/quote]

The grants don't cover about 30% of total cost.  That falls disproportionately to undergrads.  In the case of Michigan, institutional contribution is over 1/3rd of tuition revenue.  So you are saying no one should be concerned when US higher ed is the most expensive in the world and student loan debt is $1.6B, more than any consumer debt other than mortgage, you should know where I am coming from.[/quote]

No, I really don't.

The research Michigan does has no effect on what a student chooses to borrow.

The student debt problem (which is real) isn't even tangentially related to that.[/quote]

Michigan spends over a half a billion of its internal funds every year to pay its share of research expenditures.  You can see that in the NSF data.  The external grants do not cover all.  So the next question is "where does it come from?" Revenues like room and board are dedicated to room and board and fees are targeted as well.  The only sources of revenue that can be applied to it because they aren't allocated to something else are general fund (tuition and state support) and endowments and gifts that are targeted to research.  If you think this money comes from endowment, assuming a 5% payout, the entire UM endowment couldn't quite pay for it (assuming all could be directed to research rather than donor targeted uses like athletics or a professorship in the law school).  So we are largely down to tuition and state support which are commingled in a general fund.  State support, if entirely allocated to research, would only cover about 60%.  That leaves tuition.  Since students go into debt to pay college expenses and tuition is an obvious component of it, institutionally funded research is a component of student debt.[/quote]

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