Online teachers tend to be paid less than teachers of 'real world' classes, and these classes can more easily be staffed by adjuncts. Shifting the focus of teaching to adjuncts and teaching assistants would also limit the high cost of faculty salaries, especially for common core classes and departments with lower enrollments, where students may welcome the flexibility of an online venue. . Offering faculty members in non-priority departments the ability to retire is another way to reduce costs.
Prioritizing which tenured faculty members are necessary to retain, which departments cannot be shifted online or transformed into joint majors or joint programs with other, nearby institutions, and enacting a more stringent review process for tenure, to create a leaner institution is all essential. So can giving students more credits for internship and work experience that will enable students to make more money while still attending school,...
This will also reduce the need for tenured faculty and other educational expenditures.
These combined measures will reduce both the cost of faculty salaries and utilities. The university can also expand its programs to be 'green' in terms of its conversation of
energy and
water, and this 'greenness' could even become a selling-point for the university. Cost-cutting and quality are not mutually exclusive -- and when both quality and cost-efficiency can be provided, this should be rewarded. In fact, in some schools, those segments that have delivered more than their budgeted net income while still providing a high-quality education are given higher operating budgets in the subsequent year (Caldwell & Harris, 2008, p. 112).
Works Cited
Caldwell, B. & Harris, J. (2008). Why Not the Best Schools?: What We Have Learned from Outstanding Schools Around the World. Sydney: Australian Council for Educational
Research.
Chabotar, K.J. (2006). Strategic finance: Planning and
budgeting for boards, chief executives, and finance officers. Washington, DC: Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges.
Meyers, R. (1996). Strategic Budgeting. USA: University of Michigan Press.
