Dr. Barton on Academic Efficiency & Economy of ScaleYou know, one area that small Christian colleges and universities have struggled with over the last decade is academic efficiencies and economies of scale. They've had accreditation pressure to improve the academic quality, which is great. They've had pressure to add additional programs and majors and staff up to build those and grow that, which is good. But through all of that effort and the increasing regulatory burden from an audit standpoint and from a Department of Education standpoint, all of those have created enormous pressure on small Christian colleges and universities to make their budget. And historically, the way they've tried to address their budget challenges is to increase tuition at rates far in excess of the rate of inflation. They've done it year after year, and you get the compound effect of these tuition increases, and suddenly college is no longer affordable. And so then they have to provide more scholarships to keep their student headcount up, and they can't raise the money for those scholarships. So many Christian colleges and universities have themselves in a proverbial "Catch 22," where they can no longer raise tuition at the rates they've raised tuition, but their cost structure almost demands it. And so that's the big challenge, and that's why SignificantSystems exists, is to help change the paradigm; bring in different financial levers other than raising tuition that can help small Christian colleges and universities not just survive, but thrive in the years to come.
