Utah has a centralized governing body for higher education: the Utah Board of Higher Education, or UBHE. Recently, UBHE and state leaders have leaned heavily on the language of efficiency. Economically, efficiency in higher education means producing more or better education for the same cost, or the same quantity and quality of education at lower cost. UBHE’s strategic plan promises “systemwide financial efficiencies.” Meanwhile, last year’s House Bill 265 legislation required Utah’s public higher education institutions to create “operational efficiencies.”

I looked at the Utah System of Higher Education’s data book and 2025 budget history to see what efficiency has meant in practice. To ensure accurate comparison across the years, all financial figures are adjusted for inflation using the Consumer Price Index, expressed as “real dollars” or “real terms.”

The baseline for comparison is students. USHE reports that budget-related annualized full-time equivalent enrollment rose 17.5% from the 2013-14 academic year to 2023-24.

That 17.5% student growth figure is the benchmark. Yet during that same decade, the combined “UBHE Administration and Other Statewide” line grew 274.7% in real terms — almost 16 times the growth in students. In budget terms, that line covers the board office and systemwide programs such as student support, workforce initiatives, shared services, technology systems, performance funding, and special projects. Not campus instruction or regular faculty payroll. Some of those programs may support campuses indirectly, but they are far removed from the ordinary work of preparing the next generation of Utahns for a dynamic future.

USHE’s payroll tables give a clean staff-versus-faculty comparison beginning in the 2018-19 academic year. Staff payroll grew 29.4% in real terms. Regular faculty payroll, the clearest payroll line for actual instruction, grew only 9.3%. The “UBHE Administration and Other Statewide” line grew 125.6% during that period. In real dollars, that central and statewide layer alone added $77.8 million after inflation; every campus in USHE combined added only $50.4 million to regular faculty payroll. If efficiency means more or better education per dollar, this is backward. Resources are systematically shifting away from regular instruction, moving toward staff expansion and centralized administration.

Perhaps those dollars improved quality in ways payroll tables cannot capture, but research gives little comfort. Research shows that high quality instruction, active learning, and faculty engagement consistently improve student outcomes. On the other hand, broad administrative growth often shows weak or even negative relationships with outcomes like completion and post-graduate success. Administrative systems built around retention and completion metrics can also create pressure to reduce rigor, contributing to grade inflation and the broader devaluation of higher education credentials.

Utah leaders already understand the risks of broad administrative growth and centralized bureaucracy, at least when the bureaucracy is in Washington, D.C. Sen. Mike Lee has warned that it is easy to corrupt “a single, monolithic bureaucracy.” The same principle applies inside Utah. The decade-long growth of UBHE and statewide administration reflects a broader trend toward centralized management in the name of efficiency. HB 265 represents Utah’s attempt at efficiency shock therapy, and the early results suggest the same movement away from instruction and toward administrative support.

Next, I reviewed the institution level strategic reinvestment plans associated with HB 265, available through USHE’s public materials and UBHE board agenda packets. In fiscal year 2026, as part of Utah’s higher education strategic reinvestment law, the state moved roughly 10% of each degree granting institution’s education and general state-tax-funded instruction budget to a “UBHE Strategic Reinvestment” line. Supporters argue the money will flow back into high demand programs. Maybe, but “high demand” can be a rapidly moving target.

Colleges have historically produced strong labor force participation, lower unemployment, and dramatically higher earnings not by chasing short term labor market fluctuations, but through instruction that builds adaptable skills across changing economies. Yet in the plans submitted under HB 265, instruction was the largest cut category at six of the eight degree granting institutions. If an efficiency reform reduces instruction faster than administration, then we have arrived at Orwell’s point: The word efficiency no longer clarifies reality.

Orwell’s warning was about the moment when language stops helping people see. Efficiency should mean fewer administrative layers whose educational value has not been demonstrated, a higher burden of proof for permanent offices, and oversight that actually oversees. Lawmakers should require every major system initiative to show measurable educational returns before it becomes a permanent layer of government. Utah does not need more cost-inflating administrative architecture around higher education.

Gavin Roberts is an associate professor of economics and chair of the economics department at Weber State University. He is a recipient of the Gordon Tullock Prize from the Public Choice Society and regularly shares his research locally, nationally and internationally. This commentary is provided through a partnership with Weber State. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent the institutional values or positions of the university.