Universities face growing pressures. Minear & Company believes there are ample opportunities to re-engineer the administrative state, freeing up resources and balancing cost structures.

1. Universities are under unprecedented pressure to
reduce their costs.
The cost of higher education
has grown at alarming rates... …Prompting public outcry
Let me put colleges
and universities on notice:
if you can’t stop tuition from
going up, the funding you
get from taxpayers
will go down.”

2. The fundamental value proposition is now regularly
called into question.

3. Low completion rates are making
U.S. citizens less competitive….

4. ….while international competition is making
U.S. institutions less competitive.
27%
28%
29%
30%
31%
32%
33%
34%
2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Percentage of US Colleges and Universities in Top 500 of
International Ranking
From the Academic Ranking of World Universities

5. Signs of serious disruption continue to grow.
Just One of the Economic Implications On-Line Instruction:
Students taught in a
typical auditorium class
(~200)
Students that completed the very 1st MOOC:
Stanford’s “Introduction to Artificial Intelligence” (~35,000)

6. One way to lower a university’s
cost structure is to
re-engineer its administrative state

7. Rising tuitions have coincided with an increase in the
number of administrators
IPEDS data from the Delta Cost Project. Data points represent 3-year rolling average of Full-Time Fall staff. Includes all 4+ year, Public institutions reporting to IPEDS in all of 1988-2008 and 2010.
Values interpolated for institutions which did not report in 2009 (otherwise actual reported values used). Represents 82% of similar institutions having reported in any year, 1988-2010 (n = 485).
Administration is not the central function of a university….
5.0
5.5
6.0
6.5
7.0
7.5
1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Full-Time Staff Per 100 Students
At 4-year Public Universities
Faculty, Researchers, & Public Service Staff
Executives, Managers, & Other Professionals

8. Academic
Services Service (food, janitorial, etc)
Construction,
Maintenance
Roles Directly Tied to the University’s Mission
Instruction Research
Supporting Roles
Librarians
Office & AdministrativeBusiness & Financial
Public
Svc.
IT
Management
Counselors, Clergy,
Lawyers, Media & Arts
…yet disproportionate resources are devoted to
these non-mission critical roles.
The university back office is currently bigger than its front line
Based on 2013 IPEDS data of US totals for all 4+ year Public and not-for-profit Private US universities (2320 reporting in total). Each figure represents 34,658 FTE staff members.
Staff support ~2.7 MM students. “IT” represents “Computer, Engineering, and Science” FTE’s not related to research. Other categories closely reflect IPEDS job categories.
Healthcare

9. This cost growth stands in contrast to the private sector, which has learned how
to boost its process productivity.
1980’s 1990’s 2000’s
Six Sigma Business Process
Reengineering
Business Management
Software (ERP, CRM)
• Reduce process variability
• Measure, analyze, improve
• Frame around costs & benefits
• Intentionally design / overhaul
business processes
• Start with mission, goals, and
customer needs
Labor Productivity in the Business Sector
• Centralize data
• Use IT to manage
and/or automate
workflows
Continuously improving productivity in the
private sector is what has kept consumer
prices low. There are several decades
worth of accumulated knowledge on ways
to improve the productivity of business
processes, most of which are readily
adaptable to university administrative
environments.

10. Today, newer technical trends
support “leapfrog” opportunities.
+
Social Coding +
Freelancer Networks
BPM / Automation
Agile Development
++
+
Fast,
Inexpensive,
Flexible, Low-Risk
Automation
Prototypes
Software-As-a-Service
(Saas)
 Fast/scalable cloud setup
 Low client up-front cost/risk
 Economies of scale
 Less reliance on internal IT
 Rapid “proof-of-concept”
 Requirements can evolve /
change often
 Initial design flexibility
 Techniques to combine
manual & automated
process steps
 Self-serve automation
 Secure, on-demand coding
 Accessible, broad skill base
 Simplified resource planning
Rapidly automating business processes has never been easier

11. Efficiency Consulting: A metric-based approach shows
where opportunities lie and what they are worth
Process Automation: Targeted solutions create only the
change that’s needed
High ROI Solutions: Options on custom prototype
development and operational outsourcing create
maximum flexibility to design, build, and implement
solutions with the least cost and most benefit
info@minearconsulting.com
Let us help you to
cut service costs without cutting services.