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Program Economic Analysis for Higher Education

Unlock the full potential of your academic portfolio.
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Has your institution analyzed the performance of its academic programs? This can be challenging, but it doesn’t need to be.

Program Economic Analysis (PEA) is a sophisticated model that leverages your historical data to help you better understand your programs’ financial impact. This analysis allows you to identify and measure revenues, costs, and opportunities within your academic portfolio. The data can help you develop a strategic academic plan to drive financial health and live out your mission, helping you build a sustainable future.

Whether your institution is charting a new path toward financial health, or well on its journey of intentional growth, misguided program investments can hinder your institution’s ability to achieve your mission by constraining financial success. PEA can help you determine where to make program adjustments, building financial health through program efficiency and intentional investment.

Our model features interactive, customizable dashboards that provide key performance metrics for various colleges, programs, departments, and courses. Helping you measure performance from various operational perspectives, this data can empower leadership and foster institutional success.

The PEA Process

Past

We collaborate with you to collect your institutional data, so you and your stakeholders can be confident in gained insights.

Present

We listen to understand your institution’s mission and financial state to build a solid foundation for your PEA dashboards.

Future

We provide insight on your institution’s financial health to help you develop a strategic academic plan aligned with your mission and unlock your full potential.

Your Compass for Academic Investment Insights

Use PEA’s visual dashboards and customizable filters to drill down into your data and gain insight on academic portfolio opportunities. Provide stakeholders with a more complete view of the institution’s financial position with:

Revenue & Expense Management

  • Enhance tuition, tuition discounts, fees, and athletic scholarship allocations
  • Refine faculty assignments (including faculty load/release time and non-teaching expenses), adjunct compensation, and course logistics
  • Manage class sizes, course scheduling and planning, and staff resources more efficiently

Reporting & Transparency

  • Deliver accurate external reports for accreditation on class size and faculty-to-student ratio, full-time faculty representation by program, and number of sections
  • Provide detailed reporting on enrollment trends to deans, chairs, boards, and faculty committees
  • Improve financial literacy (gross versus net tuition, overhead expenses)

Strategic Planning

  • Use benchmarks and enrollment analytics for strategic academic investments
  • Manage enrollment through data visualizations of trends by program, subject area, course, and section
  • Leverage data for curriculum development and academic advising insights

Your Mission, Our Experience

Our team has extensive experience serving more than 300 colleges and universities across the United States from small, private colleges to large, public universities. We’ve helped many schools measure their academic program economics and create an environment that:

  • Encourages proactive action by validating your challenges
  • Facilitates communication by shifting the conversation in leadership meetings
  • Assists with resource allocation and strategic planning

Value-Added Services to Help Drive Your Institution’s Financial Health

Supplement PEA with other Higher Education Consulting Services including:

  • Personalized workshops that guide you through your data discovery phase to gain valuable insights and clear, actionable next steps
  • Identification of inefficiencies and how to turn them into opportunities
  • Extensive internal and external analysis of your programs that draws on industry and institutional data. Gain new understanding and develop an enhanced strategy
  • Assistance in developing and implementing a strategic academic plan that can help guide you from recommendations to action.
Ready to empower your mission through margin analysis?
 

Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology (OSUIT)

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“Forvis Mazars’ Program Economic Analysis has been a game changer in getting our university’s leadership involved, improving efficiencies, and solving financial issues—and the process has been a morale booster to the rest of the campus. Going through this analysis has made us more of a team, and we are each doing what we can to make the institution a place where we can thrive.”


Jim Smith, Vice President of Fiscal Services
Oklahoma State University Institute of Technology
Okmulgee, Oklahoma

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