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Apparently, much like zucchini, surveys are suddenly everywhere. I can barely keep up with all the reports flooding my inbox. Which ones were interesting, or infuriating? I refer to this weekly post as IRTW, so this week the "I" can stand for either.
The strategy gap
Almost every week brings another story about financial stress somewhere in higher education. Reading this year's Inside Higher Ed/Hanover Research survey of Chief Business Officers (CBOs), it's hard not to conclude that we'll be reading many more, and that they're likely to become increasingly grim.
The surprising thing isn't that CBOs underestimate the challenges facing their institutions—they don't. They recognize declining enrollments, demographic change, and mounting financial pressures. What surprised me was how often they stopped short of embracing the kinds of strategic changes those challenges would seem to demand.
The quantitative results alone show that CBOs are deeply concerned about enrollment.
46% said declining enrollment was the top financial risk facing their institution over the next five years.
46% also said demographic shifts would significantly affect their institution between now and 2030.
Growing enrollment was the top-ranked strategy (44%) for improving their institution's financial stability.
The write-in comments reinforce this picture. Many CBOs recognize the need for a different strategy based on sharper institutional focus and differentiation.
We need to better align resources with our high-demand academic offerings. Resource allocation changes have not kept pace with market changes, which isn’t an uncommon challenge in higher education, but one that we really need to address,”
Focus. Stop trying to be everything to everybody. Find a way to differentiate our niche.
Yet neither this concern nor the strategic thinking reflected in the write-in comments translates into bold choices around delivery models or reaching new student markets. Instead, most CBOs continue to prioritize investment in physical infrastructure.
Which is how we end up with over-investment in physical facilities, as I described in a recent post about the State of Facilities in Higher Education.
The emphasis on physical infrastructure isn't an isolated finding. The same pattern appears in the survey's treatment of teaching and learning. Despite enrollment concerns and repeated discussion of efficiency, CBOs show only limited enthusiasm for expanding online and remote delivery.
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