Campus CFO

The Finance Committee of the Board of Regents for Higher Education, which governs four Connecticut state universities, 12 community colleges and Charter Oak State College, approved an increase in tuition and fees for the system’s nearly 100,000 students.

Over the last 30 years, tuition has increased 1,120 percent; by comparison, even the "skyrocketing" cost of health care only rose 600 percent, and housing costs have gone up a paltry 375 percent.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal’s budget proposal would leave colleges with shaky and uncertain financing next year and create cash flow problems at the schools, the state’s higher education commissioner, Jim Purcell, said Thursday.

To make college more accessible and affordable for students of lesser economic means, the federal student aid system must undergo a radical redesign. That was one of the key points made Tuesday during a policy briefing on Capitol Hill meant to highlight areas of student financial aid that are considered ripe for reform as Congress prepares to hammer out a budget for the next fiscal year.

The Minnesota legislature is focusing nearly $3 billion in higher education funding on keeping college costs as low as possible. The House and Senate budget bills unveiled Monday would send more money to the state's grant program for financial aid and give public colleges and universities millions of dollars dedicated to freezing tuition rates for the next two years.

It costs much more to recruit new students than to keep the ones you have, which is why retention is so important to colleges and universities. With a 67 percent one-year retention rate costing $6.5 million in lost revenue annually, Valdosta State University (Ga.) officials knew they had to act. The problem was data that could have helped identify remedies were sorely lacking, and what little information the institution possessed was difficult to access and analyze.

Worldwide, there are about 1.5 billion children eligible for primary education and 650 million students eligible for higher education. What if we could effectively educate each student for just $1,000 a year? It would be an achievement greater than the $100 tablet computer (soon to be on the market) and would make education accessible to almost anyone.

This National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) project and report, supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, presents both the current landscape of state higher education finance and opportunities for improving it—from the perspective of state budget officers.

Financial aid appeals have been a regular part of the aid awarding landscape for some time now, but the way institutions respond to appeals varies widely. How your own institution responds can affect enrollment, net tuition revenue, and your school’s reputation in the marketplace.

Done right, bank card partnerships are a win-win. For students and families, the cards are a simple way to make sure that cash is available when needed. Schools continue to earn revenue from banks and, in some cases, receive incentives to outsource various financial and administrative functions, saving operating costs. But, as the saying goes, with any contract, the devil can be in the details.