A greater level of accountability around access and outcomes looms on the horizon for higher ed administrators in 2017 and beyond. Experts across the ideological spectrum predict the federal government and the general public to demand more transparency in the data released about how graduates of specific campus programs fare in the job market. This push could […]
As a conservative political strategy, "starving the beast" means to deprive an entity of funding to force it to reduce spending. Steve Mims' new film, "Starving the Beast," documents a political and philosophical shift that seeks to reframe public higher education—not as a public good for society, but as a "value proposition" to be borne by […]
There were more than 100,000 applicants to American Bar Association-accredited law schools in the fall of 2004. In the three years prior, the number of applicants rose almost 30 percent. At the time, most law schools could expect yearly increases in tuition and applications. For many universities, the law school was seen as a cash […]
Almost 90 percent of colleges and universities offer tuition remission benefits to their employees and employees’ dependents, according to the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR). And with college tuition costs skyrocketing, that benefit has become increasingly sought-after—but expensive for the institution. Campus leaders must balance financial strain with employee perks, and […]
Need-based financial aid was supposed to give everyone an opportunity to get into college and better their lives and career prospects. But that assistance is not always applied as intended, says the third edition of New America's "Undermining Pell" report. Nearly half of the public, four-year colleges studied now leave the most financially needy students on […]
The 18,000-square-foot space in Boston has all the hallmarks of a typical startup: Computers running equations, whiteboards filled with scrawled revenue projections and caffeine-fueled meetings about venture capital in glass-walled conference rooms. But the Venture Development Center (VDC) isn't a startup; it's a business incubator at University of Massachusetts, Boston that houses dozens of fledgling […]
The numbers should unsettle enrollment professionals: College and university enrollment rates have decreased for each of the last four years and nothing indicates a reversal anytime soon. A look at recent headlines reflects this trend: Mary Baldwin College in Virginia and Notre Dame of Maryland University in Baltimore each saw a drop of 5 percent […]
The founders of George Washington University could not have anticipated that, almost two centuries later, the institution’s prime location in D.C.’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood would be a developer’s dream—and a golden opportunity for the university. Their major venture, a mixed-use retail, residential and office development called Square 54 and completed in 2011, has close to […]
It has been demonstrated amply that financial aid leveraging can, under the right circumstances, increase enrollment and net tuition revenue. For some, however, that isn't the case. Enrollment leaders must therefore assess other aspects of recruitment to determine how effectively they are working to build larger, more committed applicant and admit pools, especially when increases […]
When endowment returns are way down, it’s not exactly prudent to spend the same percentage of the endowment for institutional operations each year, with the assumption that target investment payoff percentages will return. And, right now, down they are. Endowment investment returns fell from an average of 15.5 percent for Fiscal Year 2014 to 2.4 […]
