Costs associated with colleges and universities are addressed in this two-part report. Part one, a 20-page overview, Snyder's "Recent Trends in Higher Education Finance, 1976-77 to 1985-86," reviews rising national trends in tuition, enrollment, degrees, expenditures, and expenditure per student. A wide diversity is noted among institutions in each classification and in different regions of the United States. Numerous graphs and tables supplement the narrative. In part two, the focus piece of the report, "Higher Education Administrative Costs and Staffing," Galambos examines the place of administrative costs in the pattern of expenditures, analyzing elements of the rise in costs. National trends in administrative and support functions, including expenditure and staffing patterns, are reviewed. Case studies of the State University System of Florida and the University of Georgia are given that consider teaching loads and functions of professional personnel. Higher education coordinating agency reports from the following states are included: Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia. One conclusion is that the escalation of non-teaching professionals in academe suggests a need for institutions to evaluate their staffing patterns to determine whether more efficient utilization of personnel is possible. Appendices include (1) administrative expenditures related to instruction, and (2) 1985 positions by category, state university system. Six figures and 24 tables are provided. (LB)