I would say though you are correct in making sure you get charged the correct amount by your Instructor,it does not match with what you saying because of a few things. The majority of instructors do not even qualify for the "additional compensation". It is only for full time employees and well majority of us are part time. Even though I have five students I am not considered full time so there fore, I am not entitled to the additional compenstation. ( for those UND instructors who read this, I have five finish ups and my lead does not consider them continual work yet even the ones on there stage checks who took a winter break have come back needing a good deal of re-training, go figure...) Also UND keeps a close eye on things but if you feel you instructor was doing unecessary charging of your account you can always go and talk to there lead. There lead will discuss with you and your instructor about how they charge you. UND has found people overcharging in the past and they were dealt with immediatly. The $4 is used not only for "additional compensation" but also instructor meetings. The spring workshop alone cost UND aerospace $13,000 to just have every line instructor there. We are not even talking about how much money we lost due to aircraft sitting in the hangar. The $4 dollars helps cover all of that. As far as comparing other school instructor rates UND is still very competitive.( I have friends who teach at ERAU, Purdue)
AS far as going to part 61 training as I saw in a earlier thread, its all about flexability of your time and what kind of pilot does this FBO, flight school, or training academy produce. I will say that you can go to a non-aviation school and get your degree in bussiness and get your ratings on the side and be fine and dandy. I have done alot of training in part 61 and have instructed in part 61 and can tell you its hit or miss as far as your training goes. If you find a good instructor with a good FBO behind it then you will recieve adequate training. But if you get a not so good instructor and a bad FBO behind it you will suffer later on in your professional career. Now 141 is very rigid but is designed to get you through your ratings and certificates in a reasonable amount of time where in part 61 your go as you please. UND may have its faults and trust me they are there, but in a whole UND prepares you for a professional career in aviation. The Commercial Avit program prepares you how to survive ground school and how to approach flying a transport category aircraft for a type rating. I know some people will disagree with me but that is the plain truth. I am glad to have graduated from UND and feel I got a good education and awesome degree. It may not be as "great" as a bussiness degree but I can still go to a corportation and work in the finance department since a bachelor degree is a bachelor degree.
P.S. I know that a bussiness degree has many facets and that a person with a bussiness degree is far more knowledgeable than a person with out one but the point is a college degree is a college degree.
-Farva