Hi there Reader,

Higher Ed’s Financial Model Is Cracking—Fast.

From rising tuition thresholds to deep federal cuts, higher education’s financial landscape is shifting beneath our feet. Institutions that don’t adapt will struggle to survive.

🚨 What’s Inside This Week:

• Harvard raises its tuition-free threshold: What it signals for the sector.
• Ben Kennedy’s latest insights: The hard truths about financial sustainability.
• Federal layoffs gut the Education Department—what it means for data and compliance.
• A conversation with Dave Sherwood (BibliU CEO) on affordability, efficiency, and the future of course materials.

The institutions that align pricing, positioning, and operations will survive.

The rest? Good luck...

📌 Harvard Raises Tuition-Free Threshold—What It Means for the Industry

Harvard just announced a major shift: students from families earning under $85,000 will now attend tuition-free, up from the previous $75,000 threshold.

🔹 Why It Matters:

• This move signals increasing pressure on elite institutions to expand affordability.
• Expect more universities to follow suit—or face even tougher scrutiny.
• If you’re in enrollment management, the stakes just got higher.

👉 Read more on LinkedIn​

💰 Ben Kennedy: Fixing Higher Ed’s Financial Model

Ben Kennedy, CEO of Kennedy & Company, has been ringing the alarm on tuition discounting and financial sustainability.

His latest insights:

• Your pricing model is broken – Schools offering 75% tuition discounts can’t sustain it. Yet, most lack a plan to stop the bleeding.
• Your brand is your lifeline – If students think your institution is struggling, they won’t enroll. Cost-cutting decisions shape that perception permanently.
• AI & data are game-changers – Institutions using predictive retention tools and enrollment AI will gain a competitive edge.

Listen to the full conversation​

📉 Federal Layoffs Leave Higher Ed’s Data in Crisis

The U.S. Department of Education just slashed nearly half its staff, gutting key divisions, including Federal Student Aid and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

🔹 What This Means for You:

• NAEP (the Nation’s Report Card) may struggle to function, creating major blind spots for institutional benchmarking.
• Compliance teams should prepare for slower federal responses and more uncertainty.
• Financial aid offices will feel the impact—expect disruptions.

🔍 Full breakdown​

🎙️ A Conversation with Dave Sherwood (CEO, BibliU)

Dave Sherwood left Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar to tackle one of higher ed’s biggest inefficiencies: course materials. BibliU now helps institutions modernize textbook workflows, cut costs, and improve access.

🔹 Key Takeaways:

• Affordability is just the start – Institutions need smarter content management, not just cheaper textbooks.
• B2B > B2C – Sherwood learned the hard way that working with universities (not around them) is the key to scaling EdTech.
• Operational inefficiencies are everywhere – BibliU helps schools streamline pricing, content delivery, and analytics for student engagement.

🎧 Watch a quick clip (Full Convo: Next month).

Final Thought​
The financial playbook for higher education is being rewritten in real-time. From tuition pricing to operational efficiency, institutions need to rethink their approach—before it’s too late.

If you found this insightful, forward it to a colleague.

📩 Let’s connect – What’s your institution’s biggest financial challenge right now?

Reply and let me know.

Best,

-Mike O’Connor

O'Connor & Associates

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