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    Presentation

    Money Matters

    No Mission Without Margins: Balancing the Pursuit of Enrollment Growth and Financial Decision-making

    Friday, April 25, 2025
    3:15 PM - 4:15 PM PT
    Intermediate
    Approach: Strategic
    Level: Intermediate
    Fiscal realities are an ever-present tension in graduate enrollment management. The budget dictates the educational opportunities available to students, builds the bedrock of economic security for staff and faculty members, and opens the door for the future development of the academic enterprise. Higher education leaders are often forced to make financial decisions that have far-reaching implications and do so with incomplete information. All the while, the goal often being sought is nothing more than the nebulous target of MORE (e.g. students, budget, academic programs). This session will delve into the tension inherent to the business needs of higher education, share thoughts and insights from leaders in the field, and cover the necessity of prioritizing our values as a guiding principle in financial management.

    Learning Objectives:

    • Identify the complexities and challenges of fiscal management in graduate education including the impact of financial decisions on graduate students, staff members, faculty members, and future academic program development.
    • Evaluate strategies used by higher education leaders to balance financial stability (e.g., cost reduction) with the pursuit of growth (e.g., increasing enrollment headcount and net tuition revenue, expanding academic program offerings) amid incomplete financial information and limited resources.
    • Apply value-driven principles to financial decision-making, ensuring alignment between institutional values, graduate enrollment management strategies, and fiscal decisions with requisite levels of information transparency and accountability.