Dive Brief:
- The National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) announced Tuesday a new fellowship designed to help college administrators "deepen their knowledge of business management, institutional communications, and the expanding role of the [Chief Business Officer] on campus," according to a press release.
- The inaugural class of 15 participants will work in a year-long training institute with access to academic and and auxiliary experts to learn best practices in campus business operations.
- The fellowship will help apprise campus business leaders of changing trends in enrollment, endowment management and auxiliary oversight.
Dive Insight:
This new fellowship is the latest in a small cadre of programs designed to build a stronger leadership pipeline for college administrators. Increasingly, colleges and universities are turning to business leaders to take the reins of the institution, making the role of the chief business officer even more important on campus.
As the economy has changed and campus leaders have shifted higher education business models in order to adapt, the struggle to find tuition relief for students and salary increases for faculty and staff creates an executive mandate for business leadership which can diversify revenue streams and identify economic development in surrounding communities.
Higher ed investment strategies are changing with new innovations in domestic industry and global commerce, and land acquisition becomes a larger element of institutional research and expansion considerations, small and mid-sized institutions must avail themselves to creative methods of revenue creation to maintain institutional solvency.