Some college leaders say … the new fiscal reality [will lead] institutions to narrow their missions, limit course offerings, and require students to pay increasingly greater shares of the cost of their education. But other college experts worry that, without more-fundamental changes in how institutions operate, the budget trends that have been accelerated by the economic downturn of the past two years will lead public higher education down a path to mediocrity.

In response to this crisis, leaders are pursuing several options, including, “revamping the credit hour” and “improving academic productivity” by focusing on eliminating the “smorgasbord of courses” so prevalent at many institutions, according to the article.

But increased productivity will not necessarily accompany a reduction in offerings, especially when the exact costs and revenues of courses and programs are not known to the institution. And while institutions consider differential tuition as another solution to cover the higher costs of some programs, we must ask: how many colleges know the real cost of each program of study. rather than simply the costs associated with a given department? For example, the Accord reports go beyond knowing what the budget is for, say, a nursing department (which only contains costs for the nursing faculty and nursing courses). Accord reports help decision makers determine the total costs of all the courses that a student enrolled in the nursing program took that year. Since several cost intensive courses that nurses take may come under the science department, that is a key component of determining the appropriate tuition amount to charge under differential tuition, not to mention essential information required to inform decisions about which courses to cut from the college’s offerings.

Accord can help! Our line of services help leaders strategically connect costs and revenues so they can see their organization in a more strategic light. Our program costing service combined with our dashboard service empowers institutions to project future costs and revenues based upon changing enrollment patterns. And our staffing and capacity modeling tool can help leaders determine optimal enrollment levels to capitalize on existing capacity levels in courses. By consulting with program faculty and administration on course enrollment limits and staffing patterns, Accord is able to assist institutions in determining the best possible relationships between enrollment, course requirements, and faculty load.

According to a report by the Delta Project the answer varies: institution type, program, degree level, and other factors affect costs. “You frame the question one way if you are only interested in students who graduate, and another way if you want to know the cost for people who go to college and don’t complete,” the report author says. “The point is, this is not just a data question. It’s a question of what it is that we want from our colleges and universities.”

Without knowledge of the varying costs of different courses, programs and degrees, higher education administrators will be unable to meet present challenges. ACCORD’s range of unique services can help higher education institutions adapt to the demands for increased access and reduced cost, while sustaining institutional mission.

Our Portfolio Modeling Dashboard allows you to project changes in revenues and expenses instantly based upon potential enrollment patterns using your institution’s actual revenue and expense data. The projections are customized to your institution and are therefore much more accurate than those based upon averages or other institutions’ data.

For example, you could answer the following question with ease: What would our projected revenue and expenses be if enrollment in our Business program increased by 100 students and enrollment in our Nursing program decreased by 25 students?

Simply enter different enrollment scenarios and the dashboard instantly updates with projected revenues and expenses.

The dashboard has been used in strategic planning, enrollment management, marketing plans, tuition rate decisions, and institutional budgeting.

Accord provides analysis services to higher education institutions by combining enrollment and financial data to provide information on costs and revenues of academic programs, majors, and departments for strategic planning decisions. Accord also offers staffing modeling, portfolio modeling, strategic planning services, and customized consulting services.

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Fox Garrity joins APM as Director of Operations. She is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the company as well as assisting with data analysis and partner institution presentations. Fox Garrity can be reached at 1-877-786-8481.

APM Services can be reached at 877-786-8481 or apmsvcs.com.

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