Our Approach

    The Blueprint for Financial Sustainability

    To ensure their future, colleges and universities need a new approach to financial sustainability. Focusing on enrollment, retention and tuition revenue alone is no longer sufficient.

    The Objectives

    Institutions must address their over-burdened cost structures and make critical choices to more closely match operating costs to operating revenues and shrink structural deficits. The HelioCampus Blueprint for Financial Sustainability offers institutions a model for building a strong fiscal foundation and making administrative and academic operations more efficient and effective. The blueprint is designed to support three core objectives:

    Drive Student Success and Grow Revenue
    Drive Student Success and Grow Revenue
    Increase enrollments, improve student success and retention, optimize financial aid.
    Maximize Returns of Academic Programs
    Maximize Returns of Academic Programs
    Understand cost-of-instruction to identify efficiencies and optimize faculty assignments and non-teaching activities.
    Manage Costs and Streamline Operations
    Manage Costs and Streamline Operations
    Measure financial performance against strategic goals and optimize administrative spend and compensation through benchmarking and satisfaction surveys.

    The Questions

    Multiple stakeholders need to be involved in the path to financial sustainability. The questions below illustrate the cross-functional nature of shared objectives.

    The Levers

    The current higher education business model is unsustainable. Most universities run a structural budget deficit where operating revenues do not cover operating expenses. A holistic view of the financial dimensions are a critical first step in the path to sustainability and longevity.

    The following charts are based on pre-COVID financial data from 2017-2018.

    The Data

    A centralized view of cross-institutional data is critical for strategic analysis. Sample data sources include:

    Admissions
    Enrollment
    Learning Activity
    Instructional Activity
    Financial Aid
    Student Success
    Course Demand
    HR & Payroll
    Financial
    3rd Party

    The Approach

    Predefined outcomes will inform the approach needed based on your institution’s unique objectives. Approaches could include:

    Are you ready to take the next step?

    HelioCampus provides strategic decision support and insights through an enterprise analytics platform, benchmarking and data science services to help institutions drive student success and grow revenue, manage costs and streamline operations, and maximize returns of academic programs.

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