Late last week, Moody鈥檚 and Standard & Poor鈥檚 released a revised assessment of the financial health of the higher education sector.
Not surprisingly, both agencies noted that the sector鈥檚 financial risks have intensified since January: state budget appropriations continue to fall, operating expenses are outpacing tuition revenue growth, and as a growing number of colleges become unaffordable. At the same time, institutions鈥� ability to respond and adapt to these risks is limited by rising political and regulatory scrutiny of the industry and tougher accreditation standards.
S&P and Moody鈥檚 also highlighted the importance of successfully navigating the rising tide of technology change. They noted that administrators would need to be 鈥渇lexible鈥� and 鈥渂old鈥� to take advantage of new opportunities for the delivery of educational content and new revenue streams.
Unfortunately, the reports are not public, but Moody’s and S&P subscribers can obtain copies of them through the agencies’ Web sites.