AbstractsEconomics

Agricultural education in the land grant university is an integral part of the total educational process of the university. Little or no attempt has been made to assess the resource use in agricultural education. The purpose of this study is to assess, using economic criteria, the agricultural education programs in the land grant universities of the north central region. Data from the departments within this region are analyzed to determine resources used, inputs and outputs, efficiencies of individual programs, and analyses by size groupings;Data collected from the departmental executive officers revealed a variety of degree programs offered among the universities except for the undergraduate programs. For the 1978-1979 year, the undergraduate program required the largest amount of staff time (36.7% of the total) followed by the research function and graduate teaching/advising. During the same time period, over two-thirds of the salaries paid were used to support the undergraduate program;Various input/output measures were calculated from the data to examine the relationship between salaries, staff time, students, and credit contact hours. The study departments were divided into two size groupings to test statistical differences due to size. Statistical analyses revealed that salary costs per full-time equivalent are significantly different for graduate and research functions. Semester credits per full-time equivalent are also statistically significant;An economic model was conceptualized to test a production function with students graduating as the output measure and salaries and staff as the input measures. Several forms were tested with only a Cobb-Douglas production function being significant.