Re:Show HN: Effects of House and Senate Bill on California R...
by xyzzyz on Wednesday December 06, 2017 @06:05PM
(#15866000)
As for 1), I don't think it's about raising revenue. Even if accounting methods didn't change, and grad students actually had to pay a few extra grands in taxes, this would be minuscule amounts of money in the grand scheme of things anyway. It's rather about making more money from the grants be spend on doing actual science. See e.g.: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/03/trump-wants-2018-nih...
For 2), "creative accounting" is exactly what it is. Research grants are for research. The money can be spent on various things, which include salaries of researchers, the cost of lab equipment and supplies, and there's even a special category for "overhead", which is the money that goes straight to the mother institution to keep the lights on. The trick is to allocate $55k per grad student in the grant, and instantly take $20k from it to pay for the "tuition". In practice, the science labs, and the grad students are bringing income to the universities through the grants they get, and the universities additionally charge them for the privilege to do so.
For 2), "creative accounting" is exactly what it is. Research grants are for research. The money can be spent on various things, which include salaries of researchers, the cost of lab equipment and supplies, and there's even a special category for "overhead", which is the money that goes straight to the mother institution to keep the lights on. The trick is to allocate $55k per grad student in the grant, and instantly take $20k from it to pay for the "tuition". In practice, the science labs, and the grad students are bringing income to the universities through the grants they get, and the universities additionally charge them for the privilege to do so.