Learning Resources

Abstract: Financial planning is an increasingly critical function within higher education institutions. Its pivotal and multifaceted role is described in detail in this article. Based on many years of experience in higher education, the authors offer practical suggestions on how best to locate the function organizationally and perform it effectively. They discuss how environmental trends, both external and internal, are likely to impact future financial planning, the several ways in which financial planning can add value in the decision-making process, and how organizational context influences financial planning. The focus throughout is on organizational dynamics rather than analytic models.

Abstract: This article explains the cost of education in public research universities. “Price,” meaning “tuition,” is often incorrectly substituted for “cost,” meaning expenditures by the university that make the education possible. University cost is disaggregated to enable readers to distinguish between the costs associated with providing education to students and the costs of other non-educational activities that tend to produce their own revenue. While tuition has increased rapidly, real cost per student for providing education has been roughly constant for nearly 20 years. Increased revenue from tuition has been almost precisely offset by reduced revenue from state appropriations.

Abstract: Until recently, there has been no credible, reliable source for instructional cost data on a national basis for two-year colleges in the United States. To fill this need, the Kansas Study of Community College Instructional Costs and Productivity was designed and implemented as a national data collection and reporting consortium. Based on the four-year college and university Delaware Study of Instructional Costs and Productivity, the Kansas Study collects and reports community college instructional costs and faculty workload at the academic discipline level of analysis. This article analyzes aggregate national data from the Kansas Study to determine the major instructional cost drivers for community colleges nationwide.

Abstract: This article reviews current planning efforts regarding the use of2009 federal stimulus dollars in higher education and focuses on identifying best practices.It takes the approach that“best practice” should be defined by criteria outside current planning efforts and suggests that desired outcome, process, and maintenance of key relationships are the appropriate criteria. The article also describes general current practice based on a survey of planning likelihoods and analyzes the planning practices reported against the identified external criteria.

Abstract: Strategic planning is critical to ensuring that institutions of higher education thoughtfully and systematically position themselves to accomplish their mission, vision, and strategic goals, particularly when these institutions face a myriad of risks that can negatively impact their continued financial viability and compromise their ability to achieve their goals. This article argues that it is both logical and desirable to integrate risk management and strategic planning into one coordinated, holistic process to create a synergistic effect that leverages the benefits of both processes and makes them mutually reinforcing. The article notes that strategic planning and risk management unfortunately appear to be mostly undertaken as separate activities, something seemingly borne out by the plethora of writing on the disparate subjects and the dearth of writing on their integration.The article also discusses how to integrate risk management and strategic planning into a holistic process by sharing the experience of The PennsylvaniaState University’s Mont Alto campus as a potential best practice.

Abstract: The project described in this article was an attempt to uncover the principles of financial sustainability for online programs and to align these with a guide to managing online programs. An initial team of experienced online educators developed draft principles, which were then reviewed by an external consultant and revised; the revised principles were subsequently reviewed and critiqued by seven directors of FIPSE projects that involved developing and offering online programs. The revised principles are a comprehensive set of questions, issues, and concerns that are important for administrators to understand and address when planning for online programs.

Abstract: The University of Houston-Victoria’s (UHV) approach to addressing salary equity, which has been successfully implemented for a decade, employs a methodology that derives salary targets by field, rank, and seniority from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources (CUPA-HR) national salary survey. Based primarily on a model developed (and still employed) at Frostburg State University and published in the Journal of Higher Education in the fall of 1996, this approach could also work for similar institutions in search of a proven model.

Abstract: The study presented in this article focuses on strategic planning in developing countries, drawing on the author’s experiences in a dozen developing countries in Asia and Africa and focus groups in three of those countries: Afghanistan, Madagascar, and South Africa. It looks at the special challenges faced by planners in developing countries and the strategies used to respond. The enormity of the problems, the magnitude of the needs, and the difficult economic environment found in developing countries posed major obstacles. What is striking in a review of these cases is what can be done through careful strategic and budget planning. The creativity, resilience, and genius of many of those involved were remarkable. For most of these nations, strategic planning was a critical catalyst for change.