Budgets

America’s higher education system is becoming less affordable for the middle class citizen, due in large part to the loss of public funding. In fact, notes The Campaign for the Future of Higher Education in its introduction to a set of three working papers offering possible viable solutions, between 2006 and 2007 alone the rate of public investment in public higher education dropped by 12.5 percent. Sharp tuition increases have become the substitute, with tuition for California public institutions increasing by 98 percent between 2006 and 2001.

The pace of change in the business offices of universities has never been faster. All eyes are on how institutions will manage the challenges of cost containment pressures, lower federal and state support, and the changing marketplace for higher education. With more demands on your resources—including personnel, capital and time—you have to ensure you are getting the most out of your business partnerships.