Dive Brief:
- Inside Higher Ed and Gallup’s fifth annual survey of college and university business officers found fewer than half of respondents confident in their institution’s long-term financial model.
- Almost a third of private nonprofit CFOs said their institutions may have to shut down in the coming decades because of financial concerns, and 11% of public school CFOs joined them in that belief.
- The vast majority of colleges and universities seem to be increasing enrollment and launching new academic programs to increase revenue, while fewer are revising the business model of higher education.
Dive Insight:
Just more than 400 college and university business officers at public and private institutions responded to the Inside Higher Ed survey out of slightly less than 3,000 who were contacted. The survey was released just as CFOs converged on Nashville, TN, for the start of the National Association of College and University Business Officers annual meeting.
Another finding from the survey was that 37% of CFOs reported not having the data they need to make decisions about which academic programs are performing well, and 35% said they don’t have the data to evaluate administrative performance across units. Also, shared services models that centralize administrative services are on the rise with 43% of institutions reporting sharing some of these services and 23% more saying they’re considering it.