Tuition Revenue in Higher Education - What's the Real Cost of Offering Degree Completion Programs?

The landscape of higher education has changed dramatically over the last thirty years. In the past, revenue from tuition is mainly due to traditional academic programs. A student will graduate from high school and go to college or university. They attend classes full-time for four years to get your degree. Students enrolled in courses twice a year, are billed and pay your tuition. The estimated revenue from these students was relatively stable throughout their four years of attendance. This stable source of income, budgeting and planning for the future friendly process. Higher education, for the most part, was a complicated financial transaction remains in the company by revenues from tuition and a system of full-time faculty teaching a number of courses per semester . A stable group of full-time faculty throughout the academic staff costs for the year should another easy number to calculate in a college or university's financial statements. The administration of these, the traditional full-time students was simple too. Twice a year students register, they charge and collect revenue from tuition.
Since the late 1980s and early 1990s, the traditional landscape of higher education has become more competitive and complex. Demographics normal school students who wish to attend university as full-time students in four years, began to shrink. Among the non-traditional programs, known today as the degree completion programs, which were designed to recruit students outside traditional demographics of recent high school graduates who want to go to college full time. These programs were designed to broaden the revenue associated with traditional student market contraction and worked - a little. On the surface, the tuition revenue from these programs may seem like a simple addition of revenue income in the financial statements of a college or university, however, there are hidden costs that must be taken into account.
The non-traditional group of students who participate in programs to earn a degree and the revenues generated by these students is more difficult to predict and plan a school year. In many cases, a group of students will begin their program of graduation from a number of students who have been admitted to this cohort. These programs are in most cases are running on a schedule that is completely outside the traditional semester system.
A result of the addition of this type of program for a menu of a university degree or college course offerings is that personnel costs are difficult to estimate. For the most part, these qualification programs are offered in the form of evening classes to accommodate the large number of students who work full time during the day. To teach these courses, institutions had to look outside of your institution to find new employees, associate professors, who are willing to work evenings to teach non-traditional students. Although Associate Professor and flexible are valuable assets that can be added as needed, when they are admitted cohorts of students and classes start, add to the uncertainty on the estimated institutional costs during the academic year.
Another difficulty with accounting programs for a degree is added personnel costs associated with the administration of these programs. Since this race on a schedule that is outside the traditional semester system, new procedures must be in place to adequately provide essential services to these students. In general, staff should be added in the offices of the registrar and handle billing for the additional administrative work that goes along with registration, billing and placement of students graduation outside the ring twice year traditional university programs. In many cases, there is also an extra effort spent by other employees to keep costs are easily calculated. For example, when the staff of the Office of Institutional Research try to present the report of the government necessary for their students, more time is needed to accurately calculate full-time equivalents (FTE), retention and other key indicators for population student. These are the personnel costs that are difficult to detect and count in the financial statements of the universities.
Completion of curriculum and provides non-traditional educational programs are here to stay and bring real value to students. However, revenue from tuition that such programs are in addition to a college or university's financial statements must be analyzed differently than the sum of income from traditional students. There are hidden costs that should be considered when looking at the bottom line.

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