Spotlight for Career Services Professionals
The overall median career services operating budget has dipped slightly to $34,650, compared to last year’s overall operating budget of $35,000, according to NACE’s 2016-17 Career Services Benchmark Report for Colleges and Universities.
While this is only a 1 percent drop, in terms of real dollars using 2011 as a base, the median budget is down 2.2 percent. (See Figure 1.) And, compared to 2011, the five-year growth of career services operating budgets in terms of real dollars is only 4.8 percent. Overall budgets for career centers have not grown significantly over the last several years in terms of nominal dollars either.
By Carnegie Classification, reported non-personnel operating budget amounts were very wide-ranging, with the lowest average ($17,516) reported by baccalaureate-diverse institutions and the highest average ($230,409) reported by R1 institutions. (See Figure 2.)
Data were collected for the 2016-17 Career Services Benchmark Survey Report for Colleges and Universities from September 30, 2016, to January 20, 2017, from NACE member institutions; there were 705 respondents, representing 35.3 percent of all eligible respondents. Highlights from the 2016-17 Career Services Benchmark Report for Colleges and Universities are available on NACEWeb. Participating members can access the full report through MyNACE.
Figure 1: Median Non-Personnel Operating Budget, 2011-16
| Year |
Nominal Dollars |
Real Dollars
(With 2011 as Base) |
| 2016 |
$34,650 |
$32,475 |
| 2015 |
$35,000 |
$33,216 |
| 2014 |
$31,000 |
$29,455 |
| 2013 |
$34,000 |
$32,830 |
| 2012 |
$30,000 |
$29,392 |
| 2011 |
$31,000 |
$31,000 |
Source: 2016-17 Career Services Benchmark Survey Report for Colleges and Universities, National Association of Colleges and Employers
Figure 2: Non-Personnel Operating Budget for the 2016-17 Academic Year, by Carnegie Classification
| Group |
Carnegie Classification
(Abbreviation) |
Percentile 25 |
Mean |
Median |
Percentile 75 |
| Overall |
$16,285 |
$79,767 |
$34,650 |
$81,499 |
| Doctoral Universities |
Highest Research Activity (R1) |
$99,000 |
$230,409 |
$168,000 |
$303,809 |
| Higher Research Activity (R2) |
$36,500 |
$120,887 |
$64,000 |
$239,705 |
| Moderate Research Activity (R3) |
$25,573 |
$105,061 |
$56,000 |
$120,000 |
| Master’s Colleges & Universities |
Larger Programs (M1) |
$15,000 |
$48,797 |
$33,432 |
$59,090 |
| Medium Programs (M2) |
$12,937 |
$43,718 |
$21,000 |
$55,000 |
| Smaller Programs (M3) |
$15,950 |
$26,960 |
$18,245 |
$36,310 |
| Baccalaureate Colleges |
Arts & Sciences Focus (A&S) |
$24,153 |
$66,849 |
$44,636 |
$80,000 |
| Diverse Fields (Diverse) |
$6,730 |
$17,516 |
$12,225 |
$24,000 |
| Associate’s Colleges (Assoc.) |
$9,000 |
$28,464 |
$15,642 |
$32,886 |
Source: 2016-17 Career Services Benchmark Survey Report for Colleges and Universities, National Association of Colleges and Employers