PERHAPS WE COULD TAKE A LESSON OR TWO: De-Bureaucratization Within China’s Universities:

Colleges and universities have been objects of fierce public criticism from scholars, students, government, and other stakeholders. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao opposed bureaucratization within higher education institutions. As he indicated, “Universities had better abolish so many complicated administrative levels.” . . . The root cause of bureaucratization within colleges and universities is a result of the strong influence of an external actor—the government. As Chen Xuefei, a distinguished professor of higher education at Peking University has insightfully pointed out, “The key to de-bureaucratization within higher education institutions is in government’s hand.”

In the United States, meanwhile, most of the explosive growth in higher education costs has come from administrative bloat, much of it driven by the need to comply with federal regulations.