You Can't Wing It: How NYU Anchored their Tuition Model by Connecting Tuition Components in a Single Solution

Justin Martin - Tru Consulting

Even the most mature revenue models can benefit from a fresh perspective, and that is exactly what happened at New York University last year. The excel-based approach to planning effective, yet disconnected, tuition and financial aid models led to immense efforts whenever scenario assumptions changed. The lack of direct data flow between the revenue assumptions and resulting discounting delayed decisions and eroded precision, leading to an opportunity for NYU to consider a more sustainable and connected planning process with the help of Tru Consulting and Anaplan.

Through the partnership, NYU and Tru were able to move from a disconnected set of excel-based models to a deeply connected revenue share model that maintains transparency, provides clarity, and saves NYU weeks of effort previously lost to managing across siloed results. The session will share NYU's journey developing their Tuition Modelling Intelligence (TMI) model that flows from enrollment projections all the way to programmatic net revenue sharing across departments, schools and campuses.

Scott Harlow (NYU Director, Budget Planning and Strategic Projects) will share his perspective of the planning process in Anaplan, with special attention to the modeling of both typical and unique student pools, their approach to detailed financial aid calculations, as well as the connection of the TMI model to the institutions high level plans and budgets. He will highlight the immense time savings, cutting their most recent census reconciliation from multiple weeks to a few days, as well as the broader impacts of having a reliable flow of data inputs and outputs across the entire planning process.

Learning Objectives

  1. Replicate Success Stories: Reflect on one institution's approach to a common issue across all higher education institutions, and relate to the approach taken to address a critical but overlooked pain point in the planning process.
  2. Explore Actionable Solutions: Resonate with the challenge of fitting two distinct models into a single system through flexibility and partnership, resulting in a more agile and connected planning environment.
  3. Reconsider Current Planning Processes: Emerge with clear examples of process changes that deliver meaningful and beneficial impact to the core mission of all budget officers, resulting in measurable time savings

CPE Available

  • 1 Credit: Finance