by Michael K. Townsley | Aug 16, 2025 | Enrollment and Marketing
Below are marketing strategies that private colleges and universities are currently using or could consider. Marketing directors need a wide range of options to effectively attract students. The list includes common marketing strategies, with the last option being very aggressive.
- Traditional – the college uses the same strategy for decades, even when yield is dropping dramatically.
- New Geographic Area – the college reaches beyond its traditional geographic boundaries to locate students; usually, the strategy correlates the characteristics of enrolled students with potential students in new areas.
- New Revenue Market – the college designs new revenue-generating programs to attract students. These new revenue generators could include: new academic programs, new athletic programs, and new ways for students to prepare for future employment, create hybrid programs with other colleges, and buy better lists with a wider geographic range with more precise information about the potential students.
- Aggressive Plans: seek out strong programs in other colleges and offer a deal to the faculty to move to your college or start a comparable program at your college. Routes:
- Buy into an instructional network with a fast-growing market.
- Offer to buy programs from a failing college.
- Target the same market used by a competitor by offering new students a better price and shorter times to complete a degree.
by Michael K. Townsley | Aug 2, 2025 | News 2025
A headline of the Wall Street Journal article of July 28th says: “AI is wrecking an already Fragile Job Market for College Graduates”. The gist of the article is that many companies are installing AI to perform the skills that recent college graduates used to provide. Until very recently, college graduates, as the article notes, did the grunt work of preparing reports that taught them basic management and operational skills so that they could advance up the ladder of management success. Now, AI is able to do this work cheaper and faster. Nevertheless, companies still hire a few graduates to review AI reports for accuracy, coherence, and the use of legitimate citations. Unfortunately, the number of new college graduates hired by major companies is very small compared to the past.
Colleges need to quickly get a grasp on this change in the job market before the student market finds an alternative to the cost of a college degree that leads to low pay and a career with no future.
by Michael K. Townsley | Aug 2, 2025 | News 2025
Over the weekend, Duke University reported than they had cut more than 660 positions due to changes in Federal Funding. They were not clear if this was due to federal grants or federal grants plus indirect cost recovery funds. Whatever the reason, this is a large change in staffing. The takeaway on this news is that wealth and research is no longer a protection against the uncertainties that confront higher education.
Over the weekend, Duke University reported than they had cut more than 660 positions due to changes in Federal Funding. They were not clear if this was due to federal grants or federal grants plus indirect cost recovery funds. Whatever the reason, this is a large change in staffing. The takeaway on this news is that wealth and research is no longer a protection against the uncertainties that confront higher education.
Over the weekend, Duke University reported than they had cut more than 660 positions due to changes in Federal Funding. They were not clear if this was due to federal grants or federal grants plus indirect cost recovery funds. Whatever the reason, this is a large change in staffing. The takeaway on this news is that wealth and research is no longer a protection against the uncertainties that confront higher education.
Over the weekend, Duke University reported than they had cut more than 660 positions due to changes in Federal Funding. They were not clear if this was due to federal grants or federal grants plus indirect cost recovery funds. Whatever the reason, this is a large change in staffing. The takeaway on this news is that wealth and research is no longer a protection against the uncertainties that confront higher education.
by Michael K. Townsley | Jul 26, 2025 | Financial Strategy and Operations
Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ includes a provision that the federal government will not provide federal aid for bachelor degree programs that fail to produce incomes for graduates that do not exceed the income of a high school graduate. When students in an academic majors lose their federal financial aid, a college may only be able to keep these students by using unfunded institutional aid to match the lost federal aid. However, the trade-off of unfunded aid for lost federal financial aid has a negative effect on cash reserves. Federal aid provided cash, but unfunded aid does not provide any cash, which will result in the depletion of cash reserves. Under this circumstance, colleges could be forced to drop majors that lose federal financial aid. The new federal provisions on the loss of financial aid are compounded in those states that are forcing public universities to terminate majors when enrollment falls below a specific level.
Only time will time will tell whether this provision of Trump’s B3 will push colleges to terminate programs. As usual colleges will have to wait for federal bureaucrats to write and distribute the regulations before colleges learn the full impact of this provision on their academic programs.
by Michael K. Townsley | Jul 26, 2025 | News 2025
Every college needs a financial strategy and performance report format that clearly describes how the college moved from the end of the previous fiscal year to the end of the current fiscal year and how the current state of the college will shape the strategy for the next fiscal year. This template provides such a format that can tell the board of trustees, the president, and chief administrators about the financial condition of the college and where it intends to go. Any college can change any section of the report to fit the financial condition, performance and strategy for the college. The following template should not be taken as a strait jacket.
Template
Financial State of the College, Previous Fiscal Year:
- Operational Deficit
- Total Net
- Enrollment Loss During Fiscal Year 2023-24
- Debt Load
- Cash Position: Precarious
Financial Strategy for the Current Fiscal Year:
- First Priority – Build a multi-month cash reserve.
- Continue Reduction in Force (RIF) of Faculty and Staff Begun during the Prior Fiscal Year
- Freeze Discretionary Expenses
- Sell Unused Buildings
- Cut Debt Service
- Grow Enrollment
- Pay Down Unpaid Vendor Billings
- Rebuild Image by Restarting Renovation of the Library
Financial Strategy – Performance for the Current Fiscal Year
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Action
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Start of Fiscal Year
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End of Fiscal Year
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Change
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Cash Reserves
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Faculty & Staff Costs
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Savings Discretionary Buildings
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Cash from Sale of Buildings
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Reduction in Debt Service
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Enrollment
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Payoff in Vendor Payables
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Progress on Library
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Major Financial Conditions at the End of Fiscal Year
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Start of Fiscal Year
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End of Fiscal Year
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Change
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Operational Net
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Total Net
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Cash Reserves
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Debt-Service
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Enrollment
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How We Produced the Financial Performance for the Current Fiscal Year
- Describe how each strategy was accomplished
- Continue list
Opportunities for Next Fiscal Year
- Describe major opportunities
- Continue list
Financial Weaknesses to Address in the Next Fiscal Year
- Describe major weaknesses
- Continue list
Financial Strategy for Next Fiscal Year
- Operational Net
- Total Net
- Cash Reserves
- Enrollment
- Complete Library
Operational Plans to Achieve Objectives for Next Fiscal Year (Explanations)
- Operational Net
- Total Net
- Cash Reserves
- Enrollment
- Complete Library