Capitalizing on College: How Higher Education Went from Mission Driven to Margin Obsessed

Summary

In Capitalizing on College Joshua Brown illustrates how tuition-driven colleges and universities have been forced to innovate and adopt market-driven financial strategies. These institutions have longstanding commitments to offering access and opportunity to marginalized students, but the promise of improved educational outcomes stemming from federal policy changes aimed at increasing market competition never materialized. Instead competition for tuition dollars meant these colleges had to adopt new strategies to find more students to offset losses.

Capitalizing on College reveals how three of the strategies these schools adopted were initially successful but ultimately fell short in raising enough revenue to support operating a residential campus. Only a fourth accelerated strategy of going to scale raised the necessary funds—but at the cost of undercutting their mission by leading them to view students as dollars.

Capitalizing on College reveals the untold story of the missing middle. It shows how the unanticipated consequences of federal policy changes have ultimately distorted the values of mission-driven schools. Capitalizing on College offers a timely and fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the changes shaking higher education and what the future holds for colleges and universities in this new financial climate.