As colleges and universities move into 2016, campus finance leaders may wish for a crystal ball to help with preparations in the coming year. Unfortunately, a crystal ball is not in the budget. Most colleges and universities will continue to face financial hurdles, and although there is much crossover, certain issues will be more or […]
As we ring in 2016, higher education leaders have much to look forward to as well as, of course, much work to be done. Exciting developments such as the explosion of mobile technology and expanding diversity in student populations and perspectives create new strategic and process-related challenges and opportunities. Outlook 2016 is UB's second annual […]
Higher education is supposed to be a critical first step on the ladder that leads to economic mobility. But William Elliott and Melinda Lewis say that students often leave school with debilitating debt that delays or even prevents any upward climb on that ladder. The Real College Debt Crisis: How Student Borrowing Threatens Financial Well-Being […]
Much of what we read today about higher education tends to dwell on constraints and reductions, but at least one sector of academe is actually growing. New medical schools are in various states of planning, development and accreditation, while existing schools are expanding class sizes, portending perhaps the greatest increase in this sector since World […]
Although it has been a boon to commercial services such as Amazon, IBM, Microsoft and others, cloud computing hasn’t completely caught on in higher education. That’s according to the 2015 “Campus Computing Project” report, released in October at the Educause conference in Indianapolis. The migration to the cloud among higher education and government institutions has […]
With freshman discount rates once again on the rise, it will be more important than ever for institutions to review whether their methodologies for developing a budget for financial aid are sufficiently robust. Using a cohort-based budget approach is critical for understanding the implications of replacing a "cheaper" senior class with a more heavily discounted […]
Do today’s employee benefit packages resemble those that colleges and universities offered in the past? Hardly. Wellness benefits have transformed into all kinds of unique offerings, ranging from on-site vegetable gardens to fitness centers. Meanwhile, traditional “do-everything-for-me” benefits have disappeared. Schools now expect employees to take action, change behaviors and make decisions that positively impact […]
Meeting the needs of every student at SUNY Broome is a critical part of the upstate New York institution’s mission. And when a large portion of the 7,000-student population is made up of first-generation and non-traditional students, meeting their needs requires paying particular attention to campus finances. Many SUNY Broome students do not have bank […]
Handling tuition payments and donations for an institution with 15,000 students can be a complicated process that is time consuming for finance staff—especially without an integrated electronic system. Before 2011, that was exactly the situation at Indiana Wesleyan University (IWU), the largest private institution in the state. “Because of the lack of an integrated system, […]
The majority of the 500 students in Granite State College’s School of Education are already employed in K12 schools across New Hampshire. Primarily serving adult learners seeking additional endorsements or certifications in areas of critical shortage, the institution includes a main campus in Concord and extensive online courses. “Our teacher candidates work in districts that […]
