Author: Lea Patterson

New Academic Programs – Five Year Financial Forecasts in Minutes

A significant amount of time and effort goes into the development of a new program for a college. Unfortunately, the financial aspects of the new program tend not to get as much attention. In today’s environment it is becoming more and more important to ensure any new programs not only break-even but contribute positively to […]

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Upcoming Pilbara Conference: Keynotes Announced

This September 3-4, we will be hosting our Pilbara Users’ Conference entitled “Preparing for Change: Data Driven Decision Making.” The two-day event was created in response to the changes taking place in Higher Education with multiple external factors putting pressure on existing business models, not just in Australia but internationally as well. We are now […]

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Why is Traditional Accounting Failing Higher Education?

With Gary Cokins Traditional or Financial Accounting is essential for statutory and regulatory reporting for government agencies and the investor community. It is guided by Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). It is best referred to as “external” financial accounting. But here is the problem: Colleges know in detail how much they spend; however, the vast […]

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The Alternative to Closing/Merging – Networking!

In my last post I identified that 14% of presidents think their college will close or merge in the next five years. With over 4,000 degree-granting institutions in the US, this could potentially mean that more than 400 colleges are at risk of closure or merging. In this post, Andrew Faulkner and I dig into […]

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Hundreds of colleges fear closing or merging

In the latest Inside Higher Ed 2019 Survey of College and University Presidents it was no surprise to see that the majority of presidents are confident that their institutions will be financially stable over the next five years. What I was quite surprised to read was that 14% of college presidents say they could see […]

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Seven Weeks to Data Analysis Nirvana

Skip the Rapid Prototype and go straight to the Rapid Fully Functioning Model It’s a common situation around the globe for financial analysts working for Higher Education institutions. Some type of looming crisis, major project or big decision requires detailed financial analysis… or as has happened here in Australia, the Government now requires universities to […]

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The Great Higher Ed Financial Disconnect

The Critical Course Metric you probably don’t know about  Affordability and Financial Sustainability are primary concerns cited by Boards of Trustees of higher education institutions as stated in the latest AGB 2018 Trustee Index.    Unfortunately at most institutions there can often be a huge disconnect between affordability (price/revenue) and sustainability (cost/margins).    To determine if this is an issue at your institution, just ask this very simple […]

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Is a tuition freeze a good thing?

It can be if you know how to calculate the financial impact and develop mitigating strategies… here’s how: “Tuition Freeze” seems to be a headline that’s popping up more and more in higher education news sites in the US.  A growing number of institutions are proposing a tuition freeze for 2019-2020, some have had a tuition freeze […]

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Are you prepared for Higher Ed Disruption?

How can Higher Ed manage fundamental changes to their traditional business model? I was reading this article by Ray Fleming at Microsoft and it got me thinking about the Third Place concept for Higher Ed and in particular, how would an institution investigate the feasibility of establishing or transitioning to a Third Place model. For […]

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Conferences Debrief: CAM-I and Academic Impression

Well it’s been a busy week with trips to Austin TX and New Orleans to attend the CAM-I quarterly meeting and the Academic Impressions Activity-Based Costing for Academic Resource Management conference. Being a week turn-around the one benefit is that I don’t really get out of Australian time zone, so easier to settle back into […]

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