College & University Instructional Budgeting Software

Higher Education & Budgeting: 2020

As reported by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, post-secondary enrollments have been steadily decreasing for eight8 consecutive years, leading to budget concerns that are rampant across the country in public state schools, community colleges, liberal arts schools, for-profits and private institutions.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) reports that, “overall state funding for public two- and four-year colleges in the school year ending in 2018 was more than $7 billion below its 2008 level.”

Lower enrollments mean less revenue from tuition, and with less state funding opportunities, the industry has seen the following significant shake-ups:

Wheelock College merged with Boston University in 2018 after not being able to keep up with operational costs.
Newbury College closed in 2018 for similar reasons.
Southern Vermont College closed in 2019.
Amherst College is openly seeking to partner with another institution to continue operating.

You can see more on Education Dive’s list of closures, mergers and acquisitions of nonprofit schools from 2016 to present.

Solving Instructional Budget Concerns

Precision Campus Instructional Budgeting Software 3

The High Cost of Tuition

In response to state funding cuts and budget anxiety, institutions across the country are attempting to control instructional costs by:

Eliminating faculty
Cutting courses (and sometimes entire departments)
Leaving vacant positions open
Increasing class sizes

In other words, colleges and universities are having to do more with less. These internal cuts can help colleges and universities stay afloat, but they aren’t long-term solutions. And in many scenarios, making ad hoc decisions about where, when and why to make cuts can become political and add even more stress to the budgeting process.

Precision Campus for Smarter Budgeting

Spend Less Time Compiling Data & More Time Strategizing Solutions

Precision Campus helps colleges and universities avoid ad hoc and arbitrary cuts with an easy-to-use budgeting tool for strategic planning and cost analyses. Accommodating any and all budgeting models, deans, vice presidents and program directors can gain quick, clear insights to answer questions like:

Should you cancel a course?
Would it be more affordable to replace a part-time professor with a full-time faculty member?
Are there any opportunities to merge course sections to spare faculty resources?

The tool pulls data from your institutional payroll and scheduling systems on a daily basis for the most up-to-date information in one centralized platform.

Comparison Tools

Compare the costs of part-time faculty to full-time faculty.

Adjusted Costs

Could you save costs by cutting a section? Theorize and propose changes with the adjusted costs tool.

Budget Breakdowns

Break down budgets and costs by semester, term and year, and by course, section and program.

Enrollment Statuses

Integrating with your scheduling tools, Precision Campus pulls up-to-date enrollment numbers for real-time decision making.

Goal Tracking

Set revenue, productivity, enrollment and fill rate goals by course.

Collaboration Capabilities

Send proposed changes to administrators, scheduling offices and other invested parties.

With a single, interactive budgeting tool, Precision Campus supports smarter budgeting decisions.

Schedule a Consultation

Set aside 15 minutes. We’ll answer all of your data analytics questions and share recommendations.