From declining numbers of traditional-age high school graduates and changing student demographics, to the overall concern among consumers about the value of a higher education, anxiety will haunt enrollment administrators moving forward. "Last year was a stressful year for many colleges, and it has just exacerbated because of market conditions," says John Lawlor, principal and […]
In many ways, 2015 will look a lot like 2014 with respect to facilities. But there are trends impacting the creation and use of physical space on virtually every college and university campus. Institutions will be curbing new construction activity, getting creative about funding, paying more attention to overdue maintenance, and planning more for mixed-use […]
Experts in higher education administration and management predict that 2015 will bring intense and sometimes surprising governance, financial and legal challenges to the sea of potential worries for university leaders. A few critical issues that will bubble to the surface involve financial health, academic performance, student wellness and continuity in leadership. Creating financial sustainability Answering […]
Tom Fitzgerald, CEO, E&I Cooperative Services There’s no denying it: today’s higher ed administrators are facing enormous financial challenges. As tuitions have steadily increased, revenue from the state and federal government has continued to drop. Student loan debt has reached epic proportions, eclipsing the $1 trillion mark in 2011. According to the Princeton Review, college […]
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 […]
From cashing in on beer sales at football games to providing community members with a safe way to trash old electronics for a fee, administrators are looking beyond tuition and endowments to make up for budget shortfalls. Typically, there have been three types of alternative revenue sources, says Shandy Husmann, managing director of Huron Consulting […]
Supporting local economic and civic projects is a central part of the mission for community colleges that rely on voter approval for funding. In Kansas, for example, voters elect the six members of their community college’s board of trustees, which levies taxes to pay for the school’s operating expenses. Residents, however, can challenge the board’s […]
There exist an endless number of articles, books, blogs, and interviews on the state of higher education (HE) in America. The themes are consistent – fewer resources, fewer students, bloated administrative staff, less affordability, unsustainable student debt, poor graduation rates, unimpressive employability skills and what the heck is a MOOC and why should I care. […]
Subsidies for public higher ed institutions are the lowest in a decade—and for the first time, students are paying, on average, half or more of their tuition’s cost. Those are a few of the financial trends substantiated by a recent American Institutes for Research (AIR) study. According to “Trends in College Spending: 2001–2011,” a report […]
The U.S. economy has been through major changes in the last several years, and the effects are being felt on campus. In many cases, this turmoil shows up publicly in the form of a credit-rating downgrade. On some campuses, a change in the credit rating has no effect on the day-to-day operations; on others, it […]
