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Q&A
CUNY enrollment projections and actual enrollment figures
0:32:49
ยท
3 min
Council Member Dinowitz questions CUNY officials about their enrollment projections, the accuracy of these projections, and their impact on the budget.
- CUNY reports a 2% increase in enrollment for the current year, and a 5.5% increase over the past two years
- Officials explain their use of multi-year financial planning and conservative enrollment estimates
- The discussion touches on the financial impact of enrollment changes, with every 1% increase in enrollment translating to $13.8 million in revenue
- CUNY confirms there are no current plans to increase tuition
Eric Dinowitz
0:32:49
Speaking of enrollment, how did your projections of enrollment match up with actual enrollment?
0:32:57
And how did that impact the budget?
Sherif Soliman
0:32:59
Sure.
0:33:00
So as the as was said in the testimony by Hector, for every 1% in enrollment that we get, we that translates into $13,800,000 in revenue for the system.
0:33:13
We're fortunate enough that we are looking at enrollment of about 2% and I think over the past two years I think 5.5%.
0:33:25
So we're really fortunate that a lot and that's taken a lot of effort right.
0:33:28
There's been a lot of investment.
0:33:30
Some one time fund from the state.
0:33:32
We've really invested in a lot of marketing and advertising, reaching students where they are, and there's a whole strategy in our strategic roadmap for that.
0:33:40
So over the past two years about five and a half percent.
0:33:43
Do you
Eric Dinowitz
0:33:44
make I'm asking, do you make projections as to what enrollment will be, create budgets based on that, and then the enrollment comes in.
0:33:53
Correct?
Sherif Soliman
0:33:54
Yeah.
0:33:54
So we one of the things we've done in terms of a new operating budget model, which we have in our strategic roadmap, is move to multi year financial planning.
0:34:04
Right?
0:34:04
So we're looking at four years and embedded in that we need to have as accurate as possible for enrollment projections.
0:34:11
So in addition to looking at last year's actuals, we are undertaking an effort to look at other projection models where we can look at other exogenous factors like you know economic factors etcetera.
0:34:26
So all of those things together will give us an idea of what the projections are for enrollment.
Eric Dinowitz
0:34:32
And how accurate are your projections?
0:34:35
In other words, let's say there's a year where you project a certain number of students, turns out fewer students apply or are admitted, you would need to cut programs.
0:34:47
I'm asking if that's the case, how accurate your projections are in those situations.
Sherif Soliman
0:34:53
It varies across across the financial plans in each of the campuses.
0:34:56
I can say that we have, in conjunction with the campuses, talked about making sure that we are not overestimating so they're on the conservative side.
0:35:06
And I think where we're landing now is pretty much in line with what the majority of campuses had in terms of their financial plans.
Eric Dinowitz
0:35:13
And you've overestimated in the past or underestimated in the past?
Sherif Soliman
0:35:19
I I can't say in the past that we've overestimated.
0:35:23
I think we are in it as the with the onset of the structural deficit, we are taking more of a deep dive and we have regular meetings with campus leadership and the chancellery where we're talking about those financial plans scrutinizing and making sure we're not overshooting the runway.
0:35:42
So we're doing that now in the past two years for sure and can't speak to the past.
Eric Dinowitz
0:35:48
Regarding tuition, is there any consideration of changing or raising tuition rates based on the fact that the pegs exist or because enrollment is lower because CUNY tuition has been kept the same for many years.
0:36:05
So would these pegs impact student tuition?
Sherif Soliman
0:36:09
There are no current plans to increase tuition.
Eric Dinowitz
0:36:12
Okay.