Growth Beyond the Classroom - A Decade of Staffing and Spending in the UNC System

Oct 15, 2026

Growth Beyond the Classroom examines how staffing and salary expenditures changed across the University of North Carolina System from 2015-16 through 2024-25, using UNC System reports covering enrollment, employee headcount, and salary spending by job type. The analysis tracks system-wide and institution-level shifts, highlighting faster growth in non-faculty hiring than enrollment, rising staff-to-faculty and students-to-faculty ratios, and category-level headcount increases such as fiscal affairs.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages23

Reading Time58 min

AccessFree to download

Key Findings

Staffing and hiring vs enrollment

Ratio trends across years

About the Data

Source reports and coverage

Employee job-type categories

Changes in Headcount

Enrollment and faculty trends

Non-faculty functional categories

Faculty and Staff per 100 Students

Cross-institution variation

Growth Beyond the Classroom: A Decade of Staﬃ ng and Spending in the UNC System April 30, 2025 Beginning in 2021, the UNC System began reporting the five-year change in employee headcount across its 16 institutions, categorizing employees by job type. The Martin Center examined these data to find out how staffing across the UNC System has changed in the past decade. Staffing and expenditures are analyzed for the system as a whole as well as for each constituent institution. About the Data Data in this brief come from five reports released by the UNC System.1 The reports provide data on student enrollment, employee headcount, and salary expenditures for all years from 2015-16 through 2024-25, except for the 2016-17 fiscal year. The reports categorize university employees by job type: | ● Faculty
● Research
● Executive Administration
● Academic Administration
● Communications & Fundraising
● Academic & Student Affairs
● Fiscal Affairs
● IT | ● Other Functional Professionals (includes professionalsin Facilities, Health Science, Environment, Athletic Affairs, and Institutional Affairs)
● Service/Maintenance
● Technical
● Office/Clerical
● Other | | --- | --- | Key Findings: ● Non-faculty hiring outpaced enrollment and faculty hiring. Across the System, enrollment increased 10.2 percent from 2015-16 to 2024-25. Faculty numbers increased by 9.5 percent. Non-faculty staff numbers increased by 14.6 percent. ● The ratio of staff to faculty increased. In 2015-16, there were 2.18 non-faculty employees for every faculty member. In 2024-25, there were 2.28 non-faculty employees for every faculty member. ● The ratio of students to faculty increased. In 2015-16, there were 16.59 students for every faculty member. In 2024-25, there were 16.7 students for every faculty member 1 2015-16 to 2019-20 (see page 25), 2017-18 to 2021-22, 2018-19 to 2022-23, 2019-20 to 2023-24, 2020-21 to 2024-25 1 The University of North Carolina System From 2015-16 to 2024-25, enrollment increased 10.2 percent from 2015-16 to 2024-25. Faculty numbers increased by 9.5 percent. Non-faculty staff numbers increased by 14.6 percent. Change in Enrollment, Faculty, and Non-Faculty Staff The largest increase in staff occurred in fiscal affairs. In 2015-16, there were 1,343 people working in fiscal affairs across all 16 institutions. In 2024-25, there were 2,065, an increase of 53.8 percent. Changes in Headcount | Category | 2015-16 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Enrollment | 224,915 | 233,126 | 236,993 | 239,981 | 242,446 | 244,752 | 239,663 | 242,518 | 247,927 | | Faculty | 13,561 | 13,899 | 14,196 | 14,342 | 14,458 | 14,332 | 14,376 | 14,537 | 14,846 | | Research | 2,473 | 2,689 | 2,853 | 2,926 | 3,046 | 3,091 | 3,244 | 3,423 | 3,526 | | Executive Admin | 1,118 | 1,172 | 1,190 | 1,182 | 1,153 | 1,123 | 1,132 | 1,178 | 1,205 | | Academic
Admin | 699 | 757 | 787 | 798 | 783 | 748 | 764 | 783 | 794 | | Comms & Fundraising | 835 | 984 | 1,041 | 1,115 | 1,100 | 1,058 | 1,099 | 1,168 | 1,193 | 2 | Academic & Student Affairs | 2,944 | 3,305 | 3,531 | 3,626 | 3,551 | 3,396 | 3,514 | 3,836 | 3,992 | | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Fiscal Affairs | 1,343 | 1,546 | 1,597 | 1,693 | 1,702 | 1,677 | 1,775 | 1,879 | 2,065 | | IT | 2,031 | 2,144 | 2,195 | 2,262 | 2,258 | 2,225 | 2,304 | 2,423 | 2,553 | | Other
Functional Prof. | 2,167 | 2,255 | 2,330 | 2,375 | 2,383 | 2,385 | 2,507 | 2,733 | 2,868 | | Service/ Maintenance | 3,921 | 3,951 | 4,022 | 4,090 | 3,976 | 3,745 | 3,808 | 3,869 | 4,015 | | Technical | 4,102 | 4,330 | 4,361 | 4,396 | 4,301 | 4,256 | 4,290 | 4,495 | 4,613 | | Oﬃce/Clerical | 5,990 | 5,936 | 5,964 | 5,931 | 5,754 | 5,394 | 5,301 | 5,473 | 5,480 | | Other | 1,893 | 1,663 | 1,714 | 1,703 | 1,629 | 1,537 | 1,506 | 1,505 | 1,516 | In absolute term

FAQs

What time period and data sources does the report use?

The report analyzes UNC System reports covering all years from 2015-16 through 2024-25, except 2016-17, and begins reporting staffing five-year changes in 2021. The underlying data include student enrollment, employee headcount, and salary expenditures by job type.

How did enrollment, faculty, and non-faculty staff change from 2015-16 to 2024-25?

Enrollment increased 10.2%, faculty increased 9.5%, and non-faculty staff increased 14.6% across the system.

What happened to the staff-to-faculty and students-to-faculty ratios over time?

The staff-to-faculty ratio rose from 2.18 non-faculty employees per faculty member in 2015-16 to 2.28 in 2024-25. The students-to-faculty ratio increased from 16.59 to 16.7 students per faculty member over the same period.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Maya Linwood