Considerations for Meaningful and Credible Strategic Planning
Formulating strategic plans is a relatively common activity in higher education. Some institutions have strong traditions in this regard, and all levels periodically engage in this process. Others participate occasionally. Much depends on the interest and motivation of the upper administration. In fact, planning of this type is often initiated...
Getting a Head Start: Early Budget Questions for Beginners
Much has been written about academic department chairs who come into their administrative positions with no formal training and essentially must learn on the job. This oversight is particularly critical at this time, when the future shaping of higher education will depend on the leadership of academic departments to adapt...
Follow-up Budget Questions for New Chairs: Flexibility, Carry Over, and Incentives, Part II
Incentives in the Budgeting System After the first two questions posed in a previous article on budgeting and finance, namely identifying the sources of academic income and how the department’s budget is established, have been answered, the new chair should quickly align the answers to see if the department’s budget...
The Wrong Way to Talk about Higher Ed
Picture a day when you’ve gathered your faculty together to have a substantive conversation about some pressing issue facing the institution. You explain the situation using terms such as revenue, the business of education, efficiencies, degree production, throughput, and the like. This may seem sensible given that, in part, universities function like businesses. As with...
