alt Hacker News> someone has to pay for administrators
Turns out, this is also research grant money. Half or more of every grant usually goes straight to the university.as "overhead."
The universities could change this so more finding went to researchers, but they have zero incentive to.
Much of that overhead is not going to admin salaries (although, as stated elsewhere in the discussion money is fungible) but covers things like the cost of buildings, labs, maintenance, etc.