Use the APS COVID-19 Cost Optimization Playbook to activate eleven strategies for potential cost optimization.
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The financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has struck institutions of every type and the likelihood of ongoing financial pressure from declining fall enrollments, fundraising declines, and/or state funding reductions has pressured institutional leaders to evaluate cost saving opportunities where possible, even in academic affairs.
Unfortunately, many institutions will pursue imprecise across-the-board cuts. But leaders who leverage accurate academic cost data to inform decisions can better support instructional staff and students, as well as institutional goals and mission in response to COVID-19.
Rightsize course and section offerings
An overabundance of small and under-filled sections that are not critical to students’ degree paths consumes an inordinate amount of instructional resources. These resources could potentially be reallocated to higher demand or priority areas to better serve students and instructional staff. The strategies outlined in this portion of the playbook walk you through APS analyses to uncover course section inefficiencies to plan for fall 2020 and beyond.
Single section and low-enrolled courses require instructional resources that could potentially be more efficiently used elsewhere. Full-time instructors can be reassigned to high-demand and necessary courses to support student progress priorities.
Single sections that are offered in multiple terms per year may not need to be offered as often or at all. However, keep in mind that several courses at your institution serve majors, first-, and second-year students who must complete courses as requirements or pre-requisites.
One of the largest opportunities to reduce costs is minimizing unnecessary section offerings in multi-section courses. Using historical enrollment data and projections for upcoming terms, consolidate section offerings to match expected demand.
Revitalize and rightsize the program portfolio
The ever-changing landscape of higher ed has pressured institutions to diversify their program portfolios to attract students and boost enrollment. In an era of increasing costs, especially the unknown financial impacts of COVID-19, it is critical for academic leaders to conduct more frequent reviews of programs rather than the typical 5-10 year academic program review cycle. By evaluating program health, performance, and resource use on a more frequent basis, leaders can better understand their program portfolios.
Program retention and enrollment are informative indicators of either growing or declining demand for a program. These two metrics can help you short-list programs that may require additional or fewer resources. In APS, a program is defined as a pedagogical track that students follow in order to attain a credential in their chosen field of study.
Despite programs having low program enrollment and/or retention, the program may serve an outsized portion of service majors. Thus, there may be justification to keep the program in your portfolio.
Understanding the factors that are contributing to students leaving or entering a program allows unit leaders to carefully craft their curriculum, better articulate the program’s value, consider student engagement practices, and determine if there is opportunity to collaborate with other programs.
Uncover hidden capacity among full-time instructional staff and fill capacity gaps
Instructional staff are an institution’s most valuable, yet costly investment. They are a limited resource whose responsibilities span far past the classroom into activities such as advising, administrative tasks, and scholarship. Defining a ‘standard’ courseload is subjective and dependent on department goals, mission, and student demand – but aligning to the standard workload is imperative to achieve balanced workload across instructor types and efficient use of this valuable resource.
While many institutions “know” how many sections each instructor type is expected to teach annually, there is often a significant discrepancy between that theoretical expectation and how much teaching instructors do in practice— frequently for good reason. Nonetheless, the current climate necessitates revisiting teaching loads to ensure resources are used thoughtfully and deliberately to support today’s urgent needs.
Determine your expected headcount of non-contingent instructors for Fall 2020. Use last year’s headcount as a starting place, then adjust to reflect known changes (sabbaticals, retirements, new hires, etc.).
Surface non-instructional and instructional staff cost inefficiencies
Across higher ed, every institution is subject to both non-instructional and instructional staff costs. APS uses five standard account categories to understand and contextualize costs across the APS Collaborative.
You can contextualize your department with similar departments at your own institution. Keep in mind that each department is unique, making it important to compare departments that have enough in common; avoid comparing “apples to oranges.”
Evaluate how your department’s cost data has changed over time in terms of the various account categories and compare with your expectations. Export data from the APS platform to Excel to perform a separate analysis.
To compare your department’s cost data with that of peers, use the APS Benchmarks dashboard to evaluate metrics for standardized departments across different account categories. When choosing your benchmarking cohorts, it’s important for both senior and department leadership to collaborate to decide what works best for the department you wish to contextualize.
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