ARE COLLEGES HURTING THEMSELVES? REVENUE DIVERSIFICATION AND INSTITUTIONAL FOCUS.

INVESTMENT of public funds; PUBLIC universities & colleges; EDUCATIONAL fundraising; PORTFOLIO diversification; COPYRIGHT

Colleges and universities rely on public funding for the core of their activities, a structure that has been in place for over 150 years. As institutions have lobbied for an increased allocation of public funds, their core activities have changed and evolved to take on more economic and research and development activities, leading to ever growing budgets and subsequent budget requests. An additional activity for the contemporary university is the search for diversity in revenue, resulting in the undertaking of activities that stretch the boundaries of defining educationally related activities. Therefore, the purpose for conducting the current study was to identify the extent to which revenue diversification adds to the teaching and research function of higher education institutions. Through the analysis of five different public universities, findings suggest that higher education institutions typically lack the transparency necessary for consumers to make informed decisions, and that much of the language and presentation of information can be misleading to both the general public as well as fiduciary agents who make financial allocations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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