Research at NACUBO
4/01/2023
NACUBO's research team works with the association's policy, advocacy, and professional development staff to produce well-informed and data-driven solutions for NACUBO members. NACUBO members and higher education stakeholders rely on data collected by NACUBO for benchmarking and other analyses to better inform campus decisions.
Annual Surveys
NACUBO’s research team conducts three annual surveys on higher education finance:
- NACUBO-TIAA Study of Endowments: An annual survey of institutional endowment investment performance, asset allocations, spending and governance.
- Tuition Discounting Study: An examination of institutional grant aid expenditures and net tuition revenue at private nonprofit colleges and universities.
- Student Financial Services Benchmarking Study: A yearly survey of student account payment methods and other bursar functions.
Go to our Online Research Products page to purchase a copy of these reports.
Summaries and Analyses
In addition to full-length reports, NACUBO's research team also provides summaries and further analysis of our research through a wide variety of podcasts, webcasts, and Business Officer magazine articles.They are also regular contributors to other policy analysis and NACUBO professional development offerings.
- Positive Trends in College Pricing (Business Officer magazine)
- New Insights from the NACUBO-TIAA Study of Endowments (podcast)
- Reaching Expectations: Overview of the Results of the 2019 NACUBO-TIAA Study of Endowments (Business Officer magazine)
- Seeing SRI in Context (Business Officer magazine)
- Lessons Learned from the Latest NACUBO Tuition Discounting Study (podcast)
- At What Cost? Overview of the Results of the 2018 Tuition Discounting Study (Business Officer magazine)
- Flash Poll Raises Questions About Diversity in the CBO Pipeline (October 2020)
Higher Education Finance Landscape Studies
In addition to our annual reports on endowments, tuition discounting, and student financial services, NACUBO also conducts several studies that inform the higher education finance landscape:
- The Student Financial Services Policies and Procedures Report is triennial look at the methodologies student financial services staffs use to better serve their students and improve operations.
- Conducted periodically since 2010, the NACUBO National Profile of Higher Education Chief Business Officers seeks to draw a picture of the "typical" higher education chief business officer (CBO). The report contains information on career paths, current areas of responsibility, salary levels, career advancement goals, and succession plans, as well as basic demographic and other characteristics of CBOs working at higher education institutions.
COVID-19 Research
NACUBO has also developed a new COVID-19 Research page to collect data on the many activities members are undertaking in reaction to the coronavirus pandemic.
