Financial Risk Assessment of US Higher Education

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 Financial Resiliency in Higher Education introduces this blog series that surfaces research based on a tool that mines longitudinal financial and operational performance data and uses peer benchmarking and predictive analytics to identify patterns indicative of financial decline in US colleges, universities, and systems.  

 Contents in chronological order

EARLY FINDINGS (June-September 2025)

1. Where the Cracks are Forming

2. Risk Profile of 4-year Universities and Colleges

3. Cross-Sector Risk Dynamics

4. Risk Archetypes: Seeing Financial Stress Before it Hits

5. Recognizing resilience: What the numbers really say about HBCUs 

WHAT DRIVES FINANCIAL RISK AND RESILIENCY

The Impact of State Funding and Demographics (October 2025)

6. What Really Drives Financial Risk in Higher Education?      It’s Not What You Think 

The Qualities of Scale (November 2025)

7. Part 1. The Privates: The Fragility of Small Scale

8. Part 2. The Publics: When Scale Helps But Isn't Enough

9. Part3. Cross-Sector Insights: When Scale Stops Being a Shield

DEFINITIONS AND METHODS

•  Risk assessment methodology. An Overview
• Financial Risk Archetypes, Patterns, and Accelerators. A Glossary 
• Glossary of Measures and Data Definitions
• The Risk Architecture, Part 1. Scoring Individual Measures
• The Risk Architecture, Part 2. Scoring Archetypes, Patterns, and Accelerators