UF research spending at record $928.6 million in 2019

https://news.ufl.edu/2020/02/research-spending/

In 2017 it was a record $801.4 million. Here’s a comparison (2017) against other major research universities. In 2017, $928 million would have moved UF from 25th to 17th.

https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/profiles/site?method=rankingBySource&ds=herd

In two years UF’s research spending has increased almost 16%.

To put it in perspective…

The number 2 ranked University in the state, based on R&D funding is USF at $525.4 million in 2019.

Coming in at 4th (behind UM) was Florida State University which received $233.6 million in funding for fiscal year 2019.

The magnitude of those Research numbers are astounding.

But, what is much more astounding is that UF spends more on “Public Service” than it does on Research!

It used to be that the mission of a university was Education and Research. Over the last 10-20 years that has change to a three-headed mission of Education, Public Service and Research.

Based on UF’s budget (2018 FY) 24% was spent on Instruction, 23.3% on Public Service and 22.1% on Research. On a cost per student basis (~55.5K students in FY18), the amount spent per student for Public Service was almost $13,000.

I compared these amounts to 5 years prior and found that the amount spent per student for Instruction went up about $240 over those 5 years. By contrast, Public Service went up by $4,300 per student.

(I am not singling out UF, UF is following the wider trend. I just happen to be interested in UF and looked at UF’s budget.)

So, if you are wondering why the cost of higher education has increased dramatically over the last 20 years, the change in mission away from education and research is a major contributor.

Isn’t university research funded overwhelmingly by federal government and private industry grants ?

@Publisher yes, and so?

@fl1234: Just reread the final paragraph of your post #1 above.

UF’s budget is complicated. Over 50% of the revenue comes from UF Health (hospital). I’ll have to do some digging, but what matters is the expense and revenue associated with instructions. That’s what the state legislature looks at when determine how much should be allocated to UF.

Lets use this link (the last two tabs):

http://afr.fa.ufl.edu/2019/statements.php

The 2nd tab breaks it down by the University and it’s 3 key Component Units. Most of the instructional review and expense show under the university (but you’ll find some funding, like donations, under the other components.

You’ll notice there is no “public service” category. There is a service category, but that includes things like student dorms, the infirmary, etc.

UF has 18 direct-support organizations. The include, University Athletic Association (UAA) University of Florida Foundation, Gator Boosters and University of Florida Alumni Association.

The 3rd tab looks at the university only.

@Gator88NE You can find the breakout between Instruction, Public Service and Research in Annual Financial Reports via the below link. They actually break them out 2 ways, “Functional Classifications” and “Natural Classifications”.

The numbers that I gave in the earlier post came from the 2017-2018 report, but there is a more recent 2018-2019 now available. Page 15 of the 2017-2018 report shows the Expense breakdown by the categories mentioned above. They break the Expenses down into 10 categories.

https://www.fa.ufl.edu/directives/annual-financial-reports/

@fl1234 Ah, I see it now…

“Public Services” are the cost of services (to the “Public”) that UF provides. It’s mostly the same $ as “Services and Supplies” under the “Natural” Classification (but it includes employee salaries, etc). It’s not related to volunteering, etc.

For example, UF IFAS runs the extension offices across the state. In return, it gets funding from the State. UF PD would also fall into this category (and not “instructional”).

It hard to read too much into the “Public Services” expense, other that UF offers a lot of services to the state (like the IFAS extension offices). An important part of UF Mission is service to the state (with IFAS playing a significant role).