Colleges and universities are embracing analytics and using data, technology, and specialized knowledge to answer questions, reveal institutional needs, navigate challenges, predict outcomes, and improve financial performance. NACUBO's Integrating Analytics Forum provides content to help business officers tackle their data and integrate the use of analytics to inform decisions that meet institutional goals.
Topics such as COVID-19, program margins, activity-based costing, data governance, student success, tools and technology, creating a data-informed culture, data visualization, resource allocation, financial aid decisions, and more are addressed. Case studies and campus expert panels provide institutional relevance.
WebcastWorkshop
What You Will Learn
NACUBO’s professional development programs are designed to deliver the skills, concepts, and best practices for success to individuals in the business of higher education. The following course information is provided to help you determine the best learning experience to meet your needs
Develop
strategies to translate analytics to information and information to action
Formulate approaches for creating a data-informed campus culture
Identify ways to use analytics to increase efficiencies while
maintaining or improving outcomes
Understand
the innovative practices being used by colleges and universities to leverage
data and analytics
Who Should Attend
Accountants
Budget and Finance Analysts
Budget Managers
Controllers
Finance Administrators
Internal Auditors
Planning Managers
Prerequisites
No prerequisites and/or advance preparation required.
CPE Information
Estimated 6 CPE Credits
NACUBO is registered with the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) as a sponsor of continuing professional education on the National Registry of CPE Sponsors. State boards of accountancy have final authority on the acceptance of individual courses for CPE credit. Complaints regarding registered sponsors may be submitted to the National Registry of CPE Sponsors through its website www.nasbaregistry.org.
Even before the COVID crisis, college and university leaders were challenged to increase student outcomes while also addressing affordability concerns, to demonstrate the value of a degree while also working to address the costs of providing an education, and to maintain or improve quality while increasing efficiencies. By leveraging data, leaders can meet their institutions’ goals on these seemingly mutually exclusive charges. However, data alone cannot drive institutional strategies—leaders must be data-informed and must also let their institution’s mission and priorities guide progress.
The session speakers are editors and/or chapter authors for the forthcoming book Big Data on Campus: Data Analytics and Decision Making in Higher Education (to be released November 3, 2020). Forum registrants will receive a special code to receive a 40% discount on the list price of the book.
Session Duration: 75 minutes; 12:00 - 1:15pm EST
1:30 PM
Demo Session
2:15 PM
Aligning Enrollment Health with Financial Health to Promote Student Success
Institutional financial health has a clear relationship with student success. This session will explore how institutions can leverage data from their student information system to align their college and career pathways to (1) retain students and graduate them faster, (2) help ensure students have in-demand labor market skills, (3) partner with employers on internship and employment opportunities, and (4) align programmatic costs. An institution-wide team effort, this process supports all student success staff (including the business office) in using analytics to understand students’ real-time progress to on-time completion, labor market insights, and a break-even cost analysis. In this session, you will hear about one institution’s journey to leverage analytics to improve outcomes.
It’s important for leaders at all institutions—from large public to small private universities—to consider the economics associated with delivering academic programs. This consideration helps institutions create an environment that encourages strategic thinking, open communication, better resource allocation and positive decision-making. This presentation will discuss how to overcome data silo challenges and provide insights that will enable you to improve cash flows at your institution. You’ll hear about one institution’s journey towards tackling this challenge—from struggling to effectively gather and analyze data on a timely basis, to developing the capacity to effectively leverage data, to finding a Tableau-based solution they can now use to quickly identify under‐performing programs, faculty efficiency, and key metrics.
This session will describe and demonstrate how institutions can use data analytics to develop and manage a financially sustainable and mission‐aligned program portfolio. Using Northern New Mexico College as a case study, the presenters will consider the roles of data, analytics, process, and people in this work. They will also describe the market and financial data needed to evaluate academic programs and courses, the analytics involved, sample visualizations and
dashboards, and a decision‐making process that combines data with institutional judgement.
Session Duration: 75 minutes; 12:00 - 1:15pm EST
12:00 PM
The Budget Priority Survey: A New Analytical Tool to Help Manage Tough COVID Budgets
Presenter(s):
Paul Friga, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
There is no doubt that budgets at universities are going to be different than ever before. The University of Wisconsin‐Madison teamed up with ABC Insights to create a new analytical tool to help with these unprecedented times. The tool surveys key leaders on campus as to the importance of activity-based spending categories, in this case administrative spending. It then assesses the relative importance and suggested budget allocation in scenarios where a hypothetical budget of $1,000 is cut to $800. An important element of this approach is to contextualize quantitative finance data with a more holistic, mission‐centered approach to budget allocation. Using this tool, Wisconsin was able to identify millions of dollars in potential savings through efficiency opportunities among administrative areas.
Session Duration: 75 minutes; 12:00 - 1:15pm EST
1:30 PM
Demo Session
2:15 PM
Financial Impact and Scenario Planning to Navigate COVID-19 Challenges
Scenario planning at higher education institutions has always been important but is now absolutely essential to understanding COVID‐19 impacts. Learn how two institutions (a liberal arts college and a school of medicine) leveraged detailed, relationally-based models to understand the financial impacts of changes to enrollment, tuition, on‐campus vs. remote learning, state/federal dollars, auxiliary revenues and expenses, workforce planning, and other drivers. These processes and models help institutions understand the near‐term impacts as well as what these changes could mean in 3, 5, and 10 years. Being able to proactively plan, react quickly, and understand the outcomes can help the institution withstand the storm, make key decisions, and position the university for the future.
Session Duration: 60 minutes; 2:15 - 3:15pm EST
2:15 PM
Making Data-Informed Decisions for Research Enterprise and COVID-19 Impact Simulation
In an era of constrained resources and financial uncertainty, it is critical for institutions to have accurate forecasts of research revenue and to manage investments in the research enterprise. This presentation will provide an overview of how institutions can leverage data to evaluate research financial sustainability, gain insights into sponsored funding pipeline, review faculty effort and productivity, research space efficiency, and consider other key research metrics. You’ll walk away able to identify a roadmap and key factors to consider when developing and maintaining comprehensive analytics related to the research enterprise. You’ll also learn how to address key questions and considerations when simulating the potential COVID-19 financial impacts.
