Learning Resources

Survival of the Financially Fittest

Leverage Strategic Decision-Making and Key Financial Metrics to Achieve Financial Stability

By: Aaron Meis, EdD, and Julee Gard, EdD

Leaders must look closely at financial trends that may reveal signs of trouble—in the short or immediate term—and have the courage to act to address them.

From Volume 52 Number 1 | October–December 2023

Abstract: This article explores a methodology for assessing and managing the financial viability of private, tuition-dependent institutions as well as institutional tactics and strategies used to improve their financial strength. The resulting model will help institutions understand the trends and predictive value of key financial metrics directly impacting their liquidity and operations and how senior leadership can drive change. Institutional examples illustrate how to engage senior leadership in strategic decision-making that includes assessment of revenue growth and/or expense management.

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Blog Post

Published
August 9, 2023

6 Integrated Planning Strategies and Tips We Learned at SCUP 2023

By: SCUP

Every year at SCUP’s annual conference, over 1,000 of higher education’s leaders and innovators gather to share how they are advancing integrated planning at their college or university. Out of the wealth of tools, strategies, and tips shared at SCUP 2023, which took place earlier this month in Cleveland, here are six that stood out.

Institutions Mentioned: University of Colorado Denver, Texas Tech University, Augusta University, Southeast Community College
Planning Types: Strategic Planning, Resource Planning, Institutional Effectiveness Planning
Tags: Alignment, Budget / Finance, Budget Planning, Communication, Data, Decision Making, Engaging Stakeholders, Institutional Effectiveness, Resource Allocation

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Example Plans

Published
August 8, 2023

Strategic Plan, Strategic Planning Website

Public Doctoral/Research University (Colorado, United States)

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Example Plans

Published
August 8, 2023

Supporting Document

Public Doctoral/Research University (Colorado, United States)

Website for a resource alignment initiative aligned with the institution’s strategic plan.

Planning Types: Resource Planning
Resource Types: Supporting Document
Tags: Alignment, Budget / Finance, Budget Planning, Resource Allocation

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Example Plans

Published
June 30, 2023

Strategic Plan, Strategic Planning Website

Multiple Locations

Strategic plan for the university system developed by the state’s board of higher education.

Planning Types: Strategic Planning, Academic Planning
Resource Types: Strategic Plan, Strategic Planning Website
Tags: Attracting and Retaining Underrepresented Students, Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Faculty Productivity, Goals, Governance, Measuring the Plan, Metrics, Racial Equity, Strategies and Tactics, Student Success, Workforce Development

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Book Review: The Agile College

How Institutions Successfully Navigate Demographic Changes

By: Bryan C. Harvey, EdD

From Volume 51 Number 2 | January–March 2023

Abstract: The Agile College: How Institutions Successfully Navigate Demographic Changes
by Nathan D. Grawe
Johns Hopkins University Press: Baltimore: 2021
298 pages
ISBN: 978-1421440231

Does hope motivate action or complacency? Does crisis induce change or despair? Nathan D. Grawe readily acknowledges this tension in The Agile College, his follow-up book to his 2018 Demographics and the Demand for Higher Education. The latter propelled the inescapable discussion throughout higher education of the looming “demographic cliff.” The Agile College suggests how agile institutions might prevent demography from becoming destiny.

Planning Types: Strategic Enrollment Management Planning
Tags: Change Management, COVID-19, Demographics, Disruptive Change, Recovery Planning, Resiliency, Shrinking Pool of Potential Students, Student Demographics, Student Recruitment, Student Retention, Trends External to Higher Ed

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Social Mobility and the Graduation Rate Paradox

Can You Advance One and Avoid the Other?

By: Roy Mathew, PhD, Elsa Bonilla-Martin, PhD, Luis A Aguirre, MS, and Naoko Tsuboi, MA

By using a metric-based planning framework, researchers at the University of Texas at El Paso identified areas for institutional intervention to enhance social mobility outcomes.

From Volume 51 Number 1 | October–December 2022

Abstract: Social mobility is an emerging area of focus for higher education institutions. In recent years, we have seen a proliferation of measures related to social mobility produced by publishers, scholars, think tanks, and foundations. However, it is still unclear which social mobility measures to advance, or when to intervene to improve social mobility outcomes. We rely on a century of literature from economics, sociology, and policy analysis to identify an appropriate framework to understand higher education’s contribution to social mobility. Using the metric-based planning framework, we identify areas for institutional intervention to enhance social mobility outcomes.

Institutions Mentioned: The University of Texas at El Paso
Planning Types: Institutional Effectiveness Planning, Strategic Enrollment Management Planning, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Planning
Tags: Attracting and Retaining Underrepresented Students, Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Enrollment Management, Student Demographics, Student Success, Underserved Students

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Example Plans

Published
February 2, 2022

Example Plan

Private Baccalaureate College (Wisconsin, United States)

This short-duration strategic framework describes goals and very specific action steps to guide the institution through the current, globally tumultuous era.

Planning Types: Strategic Planning
Tags: Attracting and Retaining Underrepresented Students, Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Enrollment Management, Goals, Racial Equity, Strategies and Tactics, Student Recruitment

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Partnerships Promote Inclusion

A university and a secondary school collaborate to decrease dropout rates and increase college enrollment

By: Vibhavari Jani, MA, and Tim Murrell, EdD

Intentional planning and a competency-based, personalized learning model empowers graduate students from the architecture discipline to assist secondary students in becoming knowledge seekers and design professionals.

From Volume 50 Number 2 | January–March 2022

Abstract: American industries, professional organizations, individual companies, and higher education institutions continue to struggle to attract employees from underrepresented populations. Future-forward thinking is required to ensure a multicultural workforce. The authors, a design educator at a predominantly white, Midwestern university, and a high school principal at a multicultural urban school district, developed an intentional collaboration—partnerships between secondary and postsecondary institutions—to bridge the gap. In this article, they share strategies they developed for recruiting and retaining underrepresented students through intentional planning and design of competency-based, personalized learning models.

Institutions Mentioned: Kansas State University
Planning Types: Academic Planning, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Planning
Tags: Active Learning, Attracting and Retaining Underrepresented Students, Collaborative Design, Design Thinking, Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Experiential Learning, External Collaboration / Partnerships, Fine and Performing Arts Education, K–12, Student Success, Teaching and Learning, Workforce Development

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Book Review: Broke

The Racial Consequences of Underfunding Public Universities

By: Karen Merritt, PhD

From Volume 50 Number 1 | October–December 2021

Abstract: by Laura T. Hamilton and Kelly Nielsen
The University of Chicago Press
294 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-60540-1 (cloth)
ISBN-13:978-0-226-74745-3 (paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-74759 (e-book)

Institutions Mentioned: University of California-Merced, University of California-Riverside
Planning Types: Strategic Enrollment Management Planning, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Planning
Tags: Attracting and Retaining Underrepresented Students, Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Enrollment Management, Funding, Governmental Policies and Regulations, Public Institution, Racial Equity, Underserved Students

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