Posts Tagged: business models

The latest post in the ACAO series shares perspectives of two chief academic officers—one from a public institution in the Midwest with 12,700 students, the other from a private university in New England with 7,000 students. The topic is the CAO’s working relationship with arguably the most important fellow vice president on campus—the chief financial officer.

The challenge ahead for higher education is unprecedented, and the typical solutions won’t sustain our institutions. If we can’t go back to what we used to be before COVID-19, we must instead evolve to something better, writes ACE’s Philip Rogers.

There is no doubt that colleges and universities in demographically challenged states are facing serious headwinds. Yet, stories suggesting that colleges are closing more frequently than they did before don’t withstand a careful examination of the data.

A recent report commissioned and published by the TIAA Institute examines the nature of mergers and acquisitions in higher education. The report aims to assist higher education leaders to better understand the possibility of institutional mergers as components of their long-term strategic plans.

The second CBE wave—more grounded and focused on quality than the first—is underway, and resources to support development of high-quality programs include the University of Wisconsin Flexible Option case study.

According to the 2017 Inside Higher Ed Survey of College and University Business Officers, half of campus chief budget officers (CBOs) have significantly modified their budget model in recent years. The rationale: seven in 10 CBOs agree that media reports saying that higher education is in the midst of a financial crisis are accurate.

The Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education (KYCPE) has approved a new state funding model for its public colleges and universities. Thirty-five percent of state funding will be based on the kinds of degrees earned.

The pace of change in higher education used to be seen  as glacial, slow or barely perceptible. Today it is more akin to a hurricane. Misericordia President Thomas Botzman explains how his institution has navigated this shift.

Institutions and systems are proactively thinking about how to confront a turbulent mix of demographic changes, stagnant revenue streams, and growing demands to simultaneously boost productivity while cutting costs. Recently, the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) became the latest example of these looming realities.

A new report released this week looks at 11 plans that reduce or eliminate the cost of tuition or the need to borrow to cover it, including five at the state and two at the local level. The study summarizes the work of the Task Force on Assessing Tuition- and Debt-Free Higher Education, convened last July by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.

When higher education leaders gather, no theme is more common—or as tension-filled—as budgeting. ACE Leadership Director Jim Sirianni looks at the budget models available to colleges and universities institutions, and the need to move forward together on a high-impact change when adopting a new model.

Bob Shea, senior fellow at the National Association of College and University Business Officers, sat on the ACE2016 panel “Higher Education Business Models: Leading with Data to Deliver Results.” During the Q&A, the common theme emerged of how to get started on the difficult work of moving to a sustainable economic model. Shea considers that question.