Question

Stage 1 ABC at a College: Assigning Costs to Activities

An economics professor at Prince Town University devotes 50 percent of her time to teaching, 35 percent of her time to research and writing, and 15 percent of her time to service activities such as committee work and student advising. The professor teaches two semesters per year. During each semester, she teaches one section of an introductory economics course (with a maximum enrollment of 50 students) and one section of a graduate economics course (with a maximum enrollment of 30 students). Including course preparation, classroom instruction, and appointments with students, each course requires an equal amount of time. The economics professor is paid $165,000 per year.
Determine the activity cost of instruction per student in both the introductory and the graduate economics courses.
Round answers to two decimal places.

Answer 1

The activity cost of instruction per student in the introductory economics course is $1,650 and in the graduate economics course is $2,750.

Step-by-step explanation:

To determine the activity cost of instruction per student, we first need to calculate the total cost of instruction for each course. The economics professor devotes 50% of her time to teaching, so we can allocate 50% of her salary to teaching activities. Thus, the activity cost of instruction for the introductory economics course is $82,500 (50% of $165,000) and for the graduate economics course is also $82,500.

Next, we need to divide the activity cost of instruction by the maximum enrollment of each course to find the cost per student. For the introductory economics course, the cost per student is $1,650 ($82,500/50) and for the graduate economics course, the cost per student is $2,750 ($82,500/30).