The business behind the schools: finding new revenue streams at South Florida's colleges and universities: Show me the money

South Florida CEO, August, 2004 by Catherine McElrath

"As we look at the engineering firms in our area, most of their employees are starting with bachelor degrees, so they are looking for ways to earn advanced and masters degrees," Alperin says. And the employers are often willing to pay.

Nova Southeastern University, with its main campus in the southwest Broward city of Davie, was an early adopter of distance education, and in recent years has aggressively partnered with businesses to increase its revenues. For example, the H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship used its facilities to conduct training when Millford, Conn.-based Subway Restaurants installed new technologies in its stores. And Nova professors regularly teach profitable customized classes on-site at local companies such as Fort Lauderdale's BankAtlantic bank and Holy Cross Hospital.

In addition, Nova has tried to reach out into otherwise-untapped South Florida educational markets: its Institute for Learning in Retirement targets retired or semiretired South Floridians. The International Institute for Franchise Education is a national program offering courses for franchisors, franchisees, and franchise service providers. Workshops and seminars, such as a two-day "Biographical Interviewing" workshop, billed at $350 per person, also add to the school's revenue stream.

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Miami-Dade College (which this year changed its name from Miami-Dade Community College), a state-supported institution with six campuses, relies primarily on state funds to cover operating costs. But as the school has grown--MDC awards more associate's degrees than any other school in the nation--state funding has not kept up. Most classes cost between $40 and $175, far less than universities charge. MDC is not willing to raise its tuition rates.

"We're serving the masses. By raising tuition, what we are doing is making it impossible to access higher education, which ... today is an absolute necessity," says MDC president Eduardo Padron. He has worked to streamline the school's operations, and says a recent study showed it to be the most efficient educational institution in the State of Florida, and one of the most efficient in the United States.

Nonetheless, squeezed by budget crunches and a growing student body, Padron has sought alternative funding sources. "We are cultivating our alumni, developing more relationships with persons as well as corporations," he says. "We have been introducing entrepreneurial activities in the college, such as contract training."

Essential to that type of fundraising is positive publicity, something MDC, for instance, gains from the state-funded New World School of the Arts. The magnet school was created by the Florida Legislature in 1984 as a collaborative venture between the University of Florida, Miami Dade College, and Miami-Dade County Public Schools.

MDC also gains positive publicity from the Miami International Film Festival, which it took over this year from former sponsor FIU. At FIU, the festival ran up $800,000 in debt. This year's festival, held this past February, had a $1.8 million budget, provided by sponsors such as American Airlines, and grants from Miami-Dade County and the cities of Miami and Miami Beach. MDC, says Padron, streamlined festival operations to make them more cost-efficient. Although the festival did not bring in money for the school, it does boost the school's glamour factor, the artsy equivalent of a winning football team. "You want to have these kinds of events because it paves the way for promotion and other fundraising," says Juan Mendieta, MDC's director of communications.