Tennessee Technological University is known for being cutting-edge when it comes to STEM subjects. Many of its 11,349 students major in highly technical subjects such as engineering. Until 2006, however, how the institution's finance department managed payments was not cutting-edge. "We had been cutting a lot of paper checks and wasting a lot of time […]
Baker College is the largest independent not-for-profit college in Michigan and one of the ten largest private colleges in the country, with over 28,000 students across nine campuses, multiple extension campuses and an online program, including its flagship campus in Flint. Managing institutional data and IT systems at such a large college could be challenging […]
What college students are learning—and how—has become a mainstream talking point across the political spectrum. Much of this talk concerns dollars and cents—namely, cost and payoff. As a result, 2015 may be a year in which many institutions do a gut-check of their own value propositions, as pressure to increase affordability—and return on investment—pervades all […]
In this country, 25 states have enacted some form of legislation tying financial aid eligibility to student outcomes. At the same time, students are demanding more options and greater flexibility for achieving their goals, with one in nine likely to transfer to another school after one year. Welcome to higher education in the 21st century, in which funding, student outcomes, competition, and academic delivery are converging […]
USA Funds and Truckee Meadows Community College in Nevada have partnered to promote a holistic approach to student loan debt management. The partnership has included implementing a financial literacy curriculum and peer counselors for TMCC students, communicating to student loan borrowers to promote successful loan repayment, applying analytics to better target outreach to borrowers, and […]
There are few economic challenges that move the dial in America quite like the skyrocketing costs of higher ed. From early morning pundits to late night talk shows the student and family debt burden issue is clear and ever present. In the view of U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren – "Rising student-loan debt is an economic […]
The often-used businesses term "right-sizing" has in recent years become common in higher education. Though sometimes used as a euphemism for "downsizing," it more rightly refers to an effort to optimize enrollment, human resources, programs and facilities—in other words, fixed costs. There are a host of factors that should go into the analysis when an […]
Managing personal finance is difficult enough for working professionals. For college students, it can be almost impossible. Part of the reason is that there are multiple finance-related aspects to higher education, and they have different, often confusing languages, says Nedi Goga, executive director of student financial services and compliance at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. "Financial […]
Maybe the last thing you want to do in environmentally conscious Oregon is implement an efficiency-oriented solution that ends up resulting in greater paper use. Administrators at Portland State purchased an enterprise content management solution for admissions, registration and records, financial aid and business services that—among other deficiencies—necessitated the printing of a prospective student's application […]
In two short years, Western Iowa Tech Community College upgraded from generic paper-based admissions packets to a personalized packet to online microsites tailored to each prospective student's needs and interests. Besides achieving higher application rates, the new MyHub program is saving on paper, printing and mailing. Mailing an inch-thick packet of materials to every potential […]
