The Higher Education CFO: How to Thrive With an Expanding Role

Traditionally, the role of the chief financial officer (CFO) in higher education focused on managing budgets, overseeing financial reporting, and ensuring regulatory compliance. But as institutions face increasing financial pressures, shifting enrollment trends, and the growing need to be as efficient as possible, the CFO’s role is evolving. Today, CFOs must be strategic leaders and identify new revenue opportunities, guide digital transformation, and align financial planning with institutional priorities.

How can CFOs navigate these expanded responsibilities? How can they embrace their broader roles and drive sustainable changes across their institutions?

1. Adopt a Holistic Financial Strategy

In the past, financial planning in higher education often centered around balancing budgets and managing yearly expenses. Today’s CFOs are expected to take a broader, more holistic approach to budgeting.

Rather than operating the business office in isolation, CFOs must drive, or at least participate in, strategic conversations about where the institution is headed and how to fund that journey. This means embracing a holistic financial strategy that considers the full ecosystem of the institution: academic programs, student success, workforce demands, operational infrastructure, community partnerships, and so on.

What should an all-encompassing financial approach consider?

• Align financial planning with an institution’s mission and strategic goals. Resources should support the academic priorities and future direction of the college or university.
• Identify and nurture new revenue streams, such as workforce development programs, adult and continuing education, or alternative credentialing pathways.
• Form strategic partnerships with industry, government, and community organizations to unlock funding opportunities and improve institutional relevance.

By thinking holistically, CFOs can ensure that financial decisions are made to enable innovation, advance equity, and sustain the institution for the long term.

2. Leverage Data and Analytics for Smarter Decisions

Analytics is one of the most talked-about priorities across higher education today—but perhaps no area stands to gain more from advanced analytics than the financial office. When CFOs can centralize and analyze data from across the institution, they gain a wider, more accurate perspective and can make informed decisions to power sustainability and growth without inviting unintentional risk.

How can CFOs use data analytics?

• Evaluate academic program performance by assessing unbiased factors such as cost, enrollment, retention, and post-graduate outcomes.
• Assess ROI on capital investments like new facilities or technology infrastructure.
• Model financial scenarios based on different enrollment patterns, state funding projections, or policy changes.
• Allocate resources more strategically by identifying where they will have the biggest impact.

When integrated properly, analytics empowers CFOs to transition from reactive budget managers to proactive investors and strategists. For example, at Grove City College, CFO Mike Buckman is leveraging Jenzabar Analytics to gain real-time insights into academic program viability and cost-effectiveness. These insights inform decisions about program growth, consolidation, or funding reallocations—ensuring the institution remains agile and mission-aligned.

3. Foster Collaboration Across the Institution

Like their CIO colleagues, successful CFOs are building bridges across academic, administrative, and student service departments. They’re partnering with academic leaders to ensure financial plans support learning goals, and they’re working alongside human resources, IT, and enrollment/marketing teams to build strategic initiatives.

At Rogue Community College, for example, Vice President of Operations and Finance, Lisa Stanton, partnered with Lisa Parks, Rogue’s Dean of Business and Workforce Development, to revitalize non-traditional education offerings. This collaboration between the business office and academics ensured that investments were driven by Rogue’s mission. While Parks led efforts to rebuild programming based on real community and workforce needs, Stanton worked to ensure their efforts were sustainable. The results of this collaborative effort were a renewed alignment between institutional strategy, financial planning, and community service—not to mention a 28% increase in workforce training enrollment.

4. Leverage Technology for Efficiency and Transparency

Digital transformation has long since been only an IT concern; it now concerns every decision-maker on campus. As a core enabler of institutional efficiency, financial transparency, and long-term sustainability, digital transformation needs to be a priority for CFOs. In fact, institutional leaders are looking to CFOs to lead the charge in adopting technology that simplifies operations and supports real-time, data-informed decision-making.

As CFOs look for technology that enables them to streamline operations, improve compliance, and free up staff to focus on high-value initiatives, they need to invest in several key technology areas: 

• Workflow management software that reduces administrative burdens and speeds up decision cycles.
• Cloud-based financial management systems that can scale, provide real-time access to data, and facilitate collaboration across departments.
• Integrated student information systems that align finance, enrollment, and student services. This type of solution allows institutional leaders to make smarter decisions about tuition models, financial aid packages, and resource allocation.

By providing clear, auditable insight into how institutional dollars are being used to drive outcomes, these types of systems play a critical role in supporting transparency with college and university boards, accreditors, and other external stakeholders. They are exactly the type of technology that CFOs should invest in.

Keep Things Student-Centric

As market pressures and new student expectations continue to press change in higher education, the CFO must become a catalyst and supporter of innovative initiatives that will ensure long-term institutional viability and success. By adopting a holistic financial strategy, leveraging analytics, fostering institutional partnerships, and driving digital transformation, CFOs can help their institutions thrive in an increasingly complex environment. But most importantly, these decisions must remain grounded in what matters most: supporting student success. When financial planning aligns with the student experience, institutions are even better equipped to thrive in a changing higher education landscape.