Category: Budgeting

Understanding University Budget Models: Incremental, RCM, and Strategic Planning

This article is written for senior leaders in higher education, including vice-chancellors, provosts, deans, chief financial officers, and institutional planners. It assumes an advanced understanding of university operations, strategic planning, and the nuances of higher education finance. Why Budget Models Matter for University Strategy University budget models are more than accounting tools. They are strategic […]

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Academic Resource Management: A Strategic Imperative for Modern Universities

Why Academic Resource Management Matters More Than Ever Universities across the globe are facing an inflection point. The financial pressures of declining government funding, rising operational costs, and increasingly complex learner demands are forcing institutions to rethink how they manage their academic resources. At the heart of this challenge lies academic resource management, a discipline […]

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How hard is it to run a university?

Very…but let’s elaborate. Professor Bill Massy, professor emeritus of education and business administration and former vice president and vice provost at Stanford University, states in his book “Resource Management for Colleges & Universities” that all colleges and universities are governed by an “internal economy”, which he defines as: “A university’s internal economy is the network […]

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AI and Higher Ed Academic Program Management

There has been a remarkable surge in Artificial Intelligence (AI) usage, generating a significant amount of news and interest. The utilization of ChatGPT has skyrocketed, and new tools emerge regularly, aiding in the creation of images, videos, music, and short films. Microsoft has introduced their co-pilots to assist with code generation, writing Word documents, creating […]

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Supporting the Green Transition with Activity-Based Costing!

According to a recent IFAC report, only 24% of companies with plans to reduce or offset Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions factor in past or future expenses for implementing those plans. This suggests that 76% of companies are pretty much flying blind when it comes to the costs of executing plans to reduce emissions, we want […]

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Reducing Academic Workload

Last week, I read a blog post by Alex Usher titled “Reducing Work” where he suggests some ways universities can make teaching more efficient. These include: Driving down the real cost of wages by keeping wage rises below inflation, Dropping the average rate of pay per instructor, by increasing the sessional teaching load, Changing the […]

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Top Podcasts and Blogs for 2022

  OK, so I’m a little late with my “Best Of 2022” post, given it’s almost the end of January now, but I believe I’m still allowed to say “Happy New Year” as long as I post this in January it’s all good! So, Happy New Year to you all. I’ve analyzed the data for […]

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The Annual Higher Ed Budgeting Process is Broken!

TLDR The annual budgeting process is broken but can be fixed using centuries old techniques. Using demand for products/services to create budgets, not last year’s budget as a baseline. The critical component is to properly calculate fully-burdened Unit Costs. The budgeting process can be changed in stages, starting with Academic Program financial forecasts. It’s important […]

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