Inside Higher Ed’s recently published survey of Chief Financial Officers contains several findings suggesting CFOs are deeply concerned about the financial future of their institutions. Their concerns should be taken seriously by presidents and boards of trustees as they develop strategies for

Every year, the Department of Education (DOE) scores the financial health of colleges and universities that issue financial aid under the auspices of Title IV funds. The problem is that tests are computed differently across regions, within regions, and by the same person within a region. Why

Presidents and chief administrative officers need to develop a fine hand at delegating authority.  My recent blog on Scarce Resources speaks to the limited amount of time and energy that the top level administrators have.  If the president tries to do everything for everyone else, then nothing

Every college president faces the same challenge of figuring out what to do with the limited resources they have available.  Scarce resources are usually defined in terms of money.  In 1974, James G. March and Michael Cohen proposed that in higher education, scarce resources should also include

We have developed our market research service to help clients better understand the nature of today’s higher education marketplace.  Recent surveys have explored a wide variety of topics, from basic preferences for college size, location, and academic major to complex issues such as openness to

This blog is different from other blogs that Stevens Strategy has published.  We want to spark a discussion about the future of colleges.  The main issues of this discussion are: Are private, liberal arts colleges going through a paradigm shift? If colleges are going through a paradigm shift,

When coaching is really good, it is difficult to discern who is coaching whom, since the communication goes two ways.  I have been on the giving and receiving end of coaching since I was a kid.  I learned to ask questions as part of listening, and my teachers built their guidance around my

On May 4th, Richard DeMillo’s article, So You’ve Got Technology; So What? in the Digital Campus published by Chronicle of Higher Education boldly claimed that new technology is ready to blast apart the traditional pricing model of higher education.  In the same publication, another article, One

NACUBO Warns – Enrollments May Be Declining with Tuition Discounts NACUBO just published its survey of tuition discounting, and the results are disturbing.  For the first time, a number of private colleges reported that new student enrollment declined despite increases in a

President Obama wants colleges and universities to stop increasing tuition rates.  His State of the Union address, followed by speeches at several colleges and universities, indicates that controlling tuition rates are high on his agenda.  Arne Duncan, Secretary of Education, has followed up