Academic Program Optimization study
Align Your Portfolio for Growth
Optimize your academic portfolio with confidence. Evaluate existing program performance and identify high-growth new program opportunities using this data-driven study.
The Challenge
Is Your Academic Portfolio Built for the Future?
In an era of declining enrollments, volatile state funding, and rising operational costs, your academic portfolio cannot rely on guesswork. Ensuring you offer the right mix of programs — ones that align with your mission, stand out in a crowded marketplace, and support long-term financial sustainability — is imperative.
But finding that perfect mix is incredibly challenging. Simply looking at a program’s ROI or the number of declared majors only tells a fraction of the story.
The Solution
Data-Driven Portfolio Clarity
The Academic Program Optimization Study combines your institution's internal data with robust market analytics to evaluate how your academic programs perform — relative to your own benchmarks and the broader marketplace. The result: clear, actionable data to help you decide where to invest, where to evolve, and where a program may warrant a closer look.
How the Study Works
Program and Market Data
We use degree conferral and provider trends from IPEDS, organized by CIP code. Programs are scoped to your region in partnership with your institution during project intake, ensuring analysis reflects your actual competitive landscape.
Labor Market Data
We source occupational outlook and earnings data through Lightcast and the College Scorecard, mapped to academic programs using a CIP-to-SOC crosswalk.
Institutional Data
We analyze internal metrics — including graduation rates, applications, yield, and retention — provided by your institution and evaluated against your own historical trends.
What the Analysis Tells You (and What It Doesn't)
What it does:
Identifies where your programs stand relative to market opportunities and internal benchmarks, highlighting where the data suggests a closer look is warranted.
What it doesn't do:
Make decisions for your institution. The study doesn't account for internal resource constraints or define your institutional values — it surfaces the data. Your leadership retains the judgment to determine what to do with it.
A Study Tailored to Your Institutional Goals
The Academic Program Optimization Study can be scoped to meet your immediate needs. All engagements begin with a Current Portfolio Evaluation — giving you a clear picture of where your existing programs stand. For institutions ready to look ahead, you can extend the study to include a New Program Opportunities analysis.
Part 1: Current Portfolio Evaluation
A comprehensive analysis of your existing programs against regional market conditions and your institution's own performance benchmarks.
Program Scorecard
You will receive a detailed scorecard for every academic program, showing how each performs relative to the rest of your portfolio and against regional competitors.
Actionable Intelligence
You see clear, actionable data showing where to invest for growth, where to focus attention, and which programs may warrant a strategic conversation — helping your leadership make informed decisions with confidence.
Part 2: New Program Opportunities
A comprehensive analysis of your existing programs against regional market conditions and your institution's own performance benchmarks.
Evaluation Process
We evaluate the top 100 scoring CIP fields in your region, assess alignment with your institution's existing strengths and strategic scope, and narrow to a focused set of high-confidence opportunities.
Informed Recommendations
A prioritized set of program recommendations — each supported by data on market demand, labor market outlook, and institutional fit — enable your leadership to optimize new program investments.
Ready to Optimize Your Portfolio?
Making decisions about your academic programs requires more than internal data alone. Partner with Eduventures to understand where your programs stand — and where your next opportunities may be.