The number of operational challenges threatening colleges today can make one’s head spin. This expertly cultivated list can help you find your bearings and chart a new course.
Over 600 business and finance officers surveyed by NACUBO reported that controlling spending, reaffirming higher education’s value and transforming decision-making processes are among colleges’ top objectives.
They must be tackled simultaneously to untangle a web of concerns, one business officer said. Colleges face debilitating friction as shrinking budgets stymie campus upgrades and low workplace morale undermines change leadership.
Leaders believe faculty and staff are the institution’s strongest assets. Cross-campus collaboration provides the key to prosperity, the report stated.
Here are five interconnected challenges:
1. Modernizing the workforce
Recruiting and retaining talented faculty and staff and creating a positive workplace culture are colleges’ two biggest workforce concerns.
Staff headcount fell in 2025, forcing remaining staff to absorb more work.
Promoting belonging and purpose can go a long way to improve morale. However, nagging labor shortages and stagnant wages will persist as healthcare and other benefits become more expensive.
2. Managing rising costs
Colleges are grappling with the rising expenses of salaries, technology investments and mounting deferred maintenance. Solutions are limited, as raising tuition can drive students away.
Business officers say institutions resist slashing budgets. More strategic cuts can strengthen financial sustainability while protecting their core missions.
Some institutions have eliminated academic programs to focus on institutional strengths. Others are pursuing new revenue sources—increased philanthropy, continuing education and in-demand academic programs.
3. Planning amid uncertainty
Similarly, new revenue streams can help institutions weather unexpected changes in enrollment, public funding and student loan policy that can quickly undermine long-term financial plans.
“A sudden enrollment drop leads to mid-year budget cuts,” one assistant vice president said. “It would be more fiscally responsible to build in contingencies, but it seems like we haven’t been able to do so for several years now.”
While scenario planning and strengthening reserves can tame uncertainty, a cultural shift toward more modern shared governance allows institutions to pivot more quickly.
4. Transforming decision-making
Some leaders are redesigning shared governance models to make institutional goals more executable and transparent.
Leaders “must bring the campus community along,” one chief business officer said. “[T]ogether, we can be resilient.”
Some college presidents are inviting a wider range of administrators and staff into shared governance to develop more viable solutions. Teams with diverse professional backgrounds can deliberate more insightfully on AI policy, the campus’s physical footprint and other pressing matters
5. Reclaiming reputation
Institutions must correct misconceptions about affordability by more aggressively publicizing data that proves higher education’s value.
“Reestablishing the value of higher education based on facts is the key issue on which all others are built,” one business officer said. “Reputation is something difficult to recover, and it takes time to rebuild trust and credibility.”
Here are two data points about affordability and value: More students are receiving an unprecedented amount of financial aid, according to statistics from NACUBO. Graduates with degrees also earn higher premiums than Americans with a lower credential.
Read about it here: Here are 3 ways to challenge harmful narratives about higher ed
