Assessing competing models of resource allocation at a public research I university through multivariate analysis of state financing.

Abstract

Patterns of resource allocation have been studied by a variety of researchers, but this study includes variables in ways that they have not been operationalized or featured in previous studies. The purpose of this study is to analyze patterns of resource allocation across different academic units within a major research university. Eighty-five departments were studied with data gathered for the years 1988-89 and 1992-93. Twenty-six independent variables were analyzed including rational/political and critical/political framework variables. The dependent variable was the amount of state allocations to each academic unit. Regression and correlation analyses indicated that grants/contracts, gender, and ethnicity were highly significant factors in determining the amount of state dollar allocations to a department. Departments generating more in external grants/contracts received more in terms of state allocated dollars to the unit. Departments with higher percentages of women faculty and minority faculty tended to receive less in terms of state allocations. The rational/political theory more adequately described graduate education, while the critical/political theory described undergraduate education. Future research may need to include the effect of complex missions and multiple labor markets on education.