"It read to me like a lobbying effort for the National Research Council," he said, referring to the report and the organization that appointed the panel.

Public research universities-generally defined as those that compete for research funding and offer advanced degrees-typically depend on federal and state appropriations for more than half of their budgets. Private research universities get about a third of their funding from the government.

Employee fringe benefits, including retirement plans, accounted for 13.6% of total spending at 124 four-year public research universities in 2009, according to federal data compiled by the Delta Cost Project, a nonprofit group that examines higher-education funding.