Accounting differences indeed differ, but the two cleanest of the 7 categories or bins for expenses tend to be
(a) Instructional expenses; and (b) academic support. And these are the things that Tuition and Fees support. If you break down the numbers at any given university, the instructional category will be dominated by faculty salary, and then TA and PTI (part-time instruction) lines.There is a separate category for Research, but this is where external grants support is expended. This Research category will include some/considerable faculty salary when a grant “buys out” faculty time to work on research. This faculty time in Instructional then goes to TAs and PTI etc. The “department research” is the portion of faculty time devoted to research that has no external grant support .
There is much to be learned in comparing 100s of universities and colleges in terms of A and B. Institutions that rely on economies of scale (large class sizes), technology (lots of online courses) and part time labor in teaching will have
instructional expenditures that tend to fall into about the 6K-10K range per student annually.
People are absolutely right to say there a variations in the accounting, and could further talk about efficient different institutions are in delivering particular outcomes. But, it is still remains a good comparison to look at:
What is my family’s net price for tuition and fees versus what is being spent on Instructional and academic support?
And then what is the comparison of School 1 versus School 2. If for example, you are paying less in tuition and fees for your student than what a school is spending on, say, just Instructional expenses per student. Then, you probably have a good deal
I go into all this because it is helpful to think not just in terms of what you are having to pay in school comparisons, but what is likely to be actually spent by the institution per student.