What’s Better for Higher Education: Grants vs. Cooperative Agreements?
Higher education institutions today face complex financial challenges. Securing reasonable funding amid economic uncertainty and concerns about enrollment is increasing the need for soliciting grants and cooperative agreements as funding mechanisms. While both mechanisms serve to support higher education goals, they differ in their procurement processes and sponsor involvement. Grants are typically awarded based on […]
Benefits of Cooperative Agreements for Higher Education
Higher education institutions face increasing pressure to provide high-quality education while controlling costs. One proven strategy is leveraging the power of cooperative agreements for higher education to stretch procurement dollars. What Is a Cooperative Purchasing Agreement in Higher Education: The Benefits Cooperative agreements allow groups of colleges or universities to combine their requirements for products […]
Cooperative Agreements for Education: Purchasing, Benefits, and More
The landscape in higher education is changing rapidly. Education budgets are shrinking across multiple fronts heading into 2024. Several key federal stimulus programs expire, leaving gaps many institutions have relied upon. State funding is diminishing, too, in areas with inflation-driven cost spikes. Personnel costs continue rising to retain faculty and staff in a competitive labor […]
What Are the Benefits of Education Group Purchasing
Cooperative purchasing has fundamentally shifted how educational institutions source everything from cafeteria food to campus construction materials to technology services. By leveraging their collective buying power, colleges and universities nationwide are saving money and streamlining processes, enabling them to refocus their administration teams on strategic goals. The Benefits of Education Group Purchasing The value that […]
What Is a Group Purchasing Organization in Education?
Procurement in education is constantly evolving. Lately, there’s been increased pressure to reduce costs and meet more stringent social responsibility and financial governance policies. Many procurement teams are being forced to do more with less due to downsizing or increased volume—all while dealing with budget constraints and significant price volatility. Inflation is taking a toll, […]
Why You Should Consider an Education Group Purchasing Organization (GPO)
The headlines these days are not exactly encouraging. Budget deficits in California are calling for wide spending cuts at schools and colleges. Sunsetting of federal dollars looks to reduce budgets by 8% in Colorado and a loss of $2.8 billion in Chicago schools alone. School districts in Michigan and elsewhere are laying off staff. As […]
Higher Education Group Purchasing Organizations 101: What You Need to Know
Financial concerns continue to spread in higher education. San Francisco State University, Dickinson State University, St. Norbert College, and Christian Brothers University have all announced multi-million-dollar budget cuts amid significant deficits, and these are just a handful of recent cases. Even well-established higher education institutions are seeing significant budget constraints. Concerns over enrollment declines, unpredictable […]
Modern Trends in Procurement for Higher Education in 2024 and Beyond
Rising prices and shrinking budgets are just part of the landscape, continuing a procurement trend into 2024 that has been ongoing for several years. While overall enrollment may have returned closer to norms, declining enrollment in incoming freshman classes continues to trigger warning bells about further belt-tightening ahead. Procurement teams have a big job to […]
Strategic Sourcing and Procurement: Tips for Higher Education
Procurement is evolving rapidly beyond identifying preferred providers and facilitating purchasing. A recent survey of procurement leaders reported that procurement is becoming “an agile group of strategic advisors.” So, how do you evolve your organization to take a more strategic approach? In this article, we will look at creating a renewed focus on strategic sourcing […]
What Higher Education Needs to Know About Supplier Sourcing and Purchasing
Working in higher education procurement can feel a bit like being a busy firefighter dealing with wildfires. You are constantly putting out fires-both big and small-only to watch the winds shift and new fires start burning. It can be overwhelming when you are on the frontline. Getting fires under control requires a thorough game plan […]
