Correction appended: This story said the University president's salary has risen by 36 percent since 1981. The number referred to the percent that the average professor's salary has risen.

For the 10th straight year, administrative pay raises at American colleges and universities for the current academic year beat inflation, according to a survey of administrative staffs conducted by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources.

The survey was published in The Chronicle of Higher Education earlier this month.

The average administrator received a 4 percent raise this year, outpacing the 3.4 percent rate of inflation over the same period.

In the last quarter century, though, administrator pay has gone way up.

Colleges have had to play catch up with corporate salaries, which have increased sharply in the last several years. Median salaries for corporate CEOs rose by 30 percent in 2004 and 16 percent in 2005, according to the Corporate Library's 2006 CEO Pay Survey.

The salaries of the University of Michigan's top three administrators have also increased over the past 25 years. University President Mary Sue Coleman made a base salary of $516,501 this year, while then-University President Harold Shapiro made $84,347 for the 1981-1982 academic year. Adjusted for inflation, Coleman makes 160 percent more than Shapiro did.

Provost Teresa Sullivan, the University's number two, makes almost 89 percent more than her counterpart from 25 years ago, while University CFO Tim Slottow makes almost 137 percent more, both adjusted for inflation.

School of Education Prof. Edward St. John said colleges - including the University of Michigan - have been forced to increase their salaries to remain competitive.

"Higher education has become more oriented towards having to deal with market forces," he said. "In a way, it's remarkable that salaries have grown only a little above inflation. It's good they've only increased as much as they have."

The idea that a college education is an investment with an impact on future earnings took root in the 1980s, St. John said.

That allowed colleges to charge more for tuition - and use some of that money to give their highest paid staff members' raises.

During that decade, many private colleges feared going out of business, St. John said.

Most private colleges didn't have the prestige to attract students - or top faculty and administrators. Private schools decided to bring in talented administrators who would improve their reputation, St. John said.

But those administrators wouldn't come for cheap.

Many schools ramped up fundraising efforts so they could afford to pay top dollar for prestigious staff and faculty, St. John said.

Marv Peterson, director of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education, said private schools are better at fundraising because they don't get appropriations from state government.

While most private schools have to raise money to survive, some have become particularly wealthy through effective fundraising, he said.

As public institutions began losing their best administrators to smaller schools offering better pay, they were forced to open their pocketbooks.

Pressure from private institutions forced public schools to make the same changes in their administrative philosophies in the 1990s, St. John said. Now salaries for top administrators at public schools and private schools are roughly comparable.

Coleman makes more than former University of Michigan President Lee Bollinger, who is now president of Columbia University.

"We compete for our students, we compete for our faculty, and now we compete for our administrators," St. John said.

St. John said administrators were more likely to stay put at a school for their whole career 20 years ago. Once private institutions began trying to entice public school administrators with hefty paychecks or raises, public universities had to fight back.

"It used to be that faculty were valued more than administrators, but now administrators are valued more than faculty," he said.

CEOs have made more money relative to their workers' wages in many sectors of the economy. But the salaries of University administrators have remained fairly consistent with faculty salaries over the last 25 years, University spokeswoman Kelly Cunningham said.

While several executive officers at the University received sizable pay raises in the last year, the average University administrator's salary increase was 3.1 percent.

The average faculty member earned a 4.1-percent raise.

Faculty salaries, though, have increased above inflation - but not as much as their administrative counterparts.

Professor base salaries increased by 35 percent on average; associate professor salaries increased by 33 percent, and assistant professor salaries increased by 20 percent since 1981.