The ranks of non-teaching university employees have grown over recent years, pushing up tuition costs, specialists in higher education report.

• In the past decade and a half, tuition costs have increased 195.3 percent -- compared to a rise of just 63.3 percent in the consumer price index.

• In the fall of 1976, universities nationwide had 31.5 administrators for every 1,000 students -- a ratio that grew to 51.4 per 1,000 by 1993.

• By the mid-1990s, only about 35 percent of all university employees actually taught students.

• A typical teacher at a medium-quality state university may spend 650 hours a year on the teaching function -- including preparation, grading papers and advising -- for perhaps $65,000 in salary and benefits, or about $100 an hour.

Experts point out that for-profit schools can hire people whose main job is to teach for much less per hour. Moreover, it can gain efficiencies through technology -- such as classes via the Internet -- and have far fewer administrators than state-supported schools.