Scenario planning for Higher Education

During times of uncertainty, it’s all the more difficult for higher education institutions to accurately determine the potential budget impacts of changing their academic model. Schools addressing budget cuts face the possibility of further reductions in tuition revenue, financial aid, and other revenue sources due to a projected decrease in enrollment and student attendance. To gain a better understanding of the possible financial impact, higher education institutions can use scenario planning to assess the best case scenario, worst case scenario, and everything in-between to create a plan that will help them respond effectively, when the only thing certain about the fall semester is that it won’t be business as usual.

Scenario planning results in informed decision-making

Budget planning is already an extensive process, but it becomes even harder to build a budget in times of uncertainty. Scenario planning requires examining every possible situation that could occur and determining the most effective course of action for the school to take in response.

Using scenarios can also help higher education institutions make informed decisions related to enrollment, teaching, research, staffing, athletics, housing, and student activities. Understanding how each potential scenario could play out will ensure schools respond effectively to significant changes in how they operate, deliver courses, and manage their finances, with the ability to adjust as the crisis evolves. Better planning will result in better preparation, and allow schools to navigate disruptions to provide quality education to their students.

Prepare for uncertainty with Euna Budget

To plan for multiple scenarios higher education institutions need to have accurate and reliable data to comprehend how the school will perform in each scenario. Many schools don’t have the technology that can provide the data and insights that would allow them to make decisions quickly. Budget software that enables schools to analyze data, create models, and calculate the costs of different scenarios would empower them to find answers to tomorrow’s questions.

Euna Budget, powered by Questica, is a cloud-based budgeting solution that houses budget data in one secure and accessible place for users. Higher education schools can budget to the lowest level and drill-down through the details to understand how their budgets can be developed. Euna Budget’s forecasting features and what-if scenarios permit users to analyze an unlimited number of scenarios, while the Advanced Calculation Engine (ACE) general-purpose calculation system can help them create complex modeling for revenue and expenses. Higher education institutions can gain important insights from their budget data that lead to informed decisions for their academic community.

While it’s difficult to know what the future holds for higher education, one certainty is that it won’t be business as usual. By using scenario planning, higher education institutions can make informed decisions about how to manage the financial impact during challenging circumstances to develop budgets that enable them to adjust effectively. Predicting the future may not be possible, but Euna Budget can enable schools to prepare today and feel confident that they can continue delivering high quality education to their students tomorrow.

Ready to future-proof your institutions budget? Schedule a demo with our Solutions team today!