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Partner Service

Financial Performance Collaborative for University Deans

Our collaborative will help your college or school fund emerging priorities, safeguard future spending, and support institutional priorities through resource allocation savings.

Higher education has seen its fair share of disruptions and crises in the past few years. In the midst of responding to an ever-changing environment, it is easy to overlook basic hygiene necessary to ensure good stewardship of academic and administrative resources. Without periodic review and financial health checks, institutions are expending resources in ways that may have once made sense but are no longer aligned with the needs and priorities of the day.

This problem impacts academic units across campus and at all levels, from programs up to colleges or schools. At R1 institutions, deans are well positioned to make the kinds of changes that can improve alignment between strategic goals and academic resource allocation.

Challenges to making progress

  • Program assessment goals are misunderstood and conflated with program prioritization cuts, leading to a needlessly political process
  • Infrequent program assessment leads to delayed and reactive decision making
  • Efficiency opportunities are often overlooked among programs with strong enrollments

“When program assessment comes up, the conversation almost always jumps straight to cuts, and that immediately puts faculty on edge. From where I sit, what we really need is a better way to keep an eye on the health of our programs and make smart, long-term decisions about the portfolio as a whole.”

Dean, College of Arts & Sciences

Public R1 University

About the collaborative

EAB’s Financial Performance Collaborative will help you identify opportunities to recapture savings from areas that have historically been overlooked in conversations about resource allocation, but that increasingly cannot be ignored. This is critical in financially tough environments but is no less important in periods of stability where these savings can help you safeguard future spending or fund emerging priorities.

EAB’s new collaborative experience will help you:

  • Design a right-fit process that you can implement in your college or school, while coordinating with any related institution-level initiatives
  • Build confidence and motivate change on critical priorities with step-by-step guidance through essential analyses
  • Expand your skills and capacity with 1:1 expert coaching and project management support
  • Accelerate best-practice implementation in an expert-led format that allows you to focus on the most critical priority areas for your campus right now

Successfully implement continuous program review through four expert-led workshops and programs

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    1. The Program Assessment Basics

    January 21, 2026 from 1:00-2:30 p.m. ET

     

    Sample activities:

    • Determine your goals for program assessment
    • Identify stakeholders who will support the annual assessment process

  • 2. Establishing Your Metrics and Value Drivers

    February 11, 2026 from 1:00-2:30 p.m. ET

     

    Sample activities:

    • Develop a program portfolio review rubric
    • Surface opportunities to revitalize low-performing programs
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    3. Realizing Academic Efficiencies

    March 4, 2026 from 1:00-2:30 p.m. ET

     

    Sample activities:

    • Conduct instructional capacity analyses to surface opportunities not identified through traditional program assessment
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    4. Refine Your Plan With Peer Insights

    March 25, 2026 from 1:00-2:30 p.m. ET

     

    Sample activities:

    • Receive live peer feedback to improve your new annual program review plan
    • Troubleshoot challenges to change management

How to participate

This service is available to Deans Advisory Services partners. If you are a partner interested in participating in the first cohort of our Financial Performance Collaborative tailored to meet the needs of deans at R1 institutions, please log in and fill out the form below. You can also contact your EAB research strategic leader or email [email protected] to learn more. Once we receive your request, we will be in touch with further details.

In the form, please nominate:

  1. An Executive Sponsor (ES): This person will offer leadership-level support and advice to the Implementation Leader as they lead the charge to implement new initiatives on campus. Suggested role: dean.
  2. An Implementation Leader (IL): This person will participate in the collaborative on your college’s behalf. To benefit most from this experience, your IL is expected to come to every synchronous session of the collaborative and complete 30-60 minutes of work between each session. Suggested roles: associate or assistant dean in charge of programs, academic affairs, strategic initiatives, effectiveness, etc.

Your EAB Strategic Leader will be in touch with more information after you express your interest.

If you are not yet a partner, learn more about Deans Advisory Services.

Interested in learning more?

Fill out the form to request more information on the Financial Performance Collaborative and how EAB works with university deans.