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The higher education industry is currently grappling with unprecedented forces, such as demographic shifts, market disruptions, and sustained enrollment declines. These trends were intensified by the COVID-19 crisis, which also deepened our understanding that outcomes of higher education are uneven and can often exacerbate historical inequities for many students and communities. Amid these monumental challenges, higher education leaders have an opportunity to build more resilient and equitable systems in which all students, regardless of their backgrounds, can achieve their definition of success. ​ The MAPS Project is a student-centric initiative by the Sorenson Impact Center to chart the rapidly evolving higher education system. It brings high-quality data and historically marginalized voices to higher education decision makers in order to Model, Analyze, Prototype, and Share innovative solutions. The suite of MAPS data tools - and supporting research - offers a new way to identify strategic questions, navigate market challenges, and make data-backed decisions toward greater equity. THE MAPS PROJECT WATCH Institutional Response DATA TOOLS ​ The suite of MAPS data tools offers opportunities for critical insight and foresight into institutional performance within a rapidly changing market. These tools empower leaders to ask better questions and make more informed decisions based on actionable, data-driven insights. ​ The Sorenson Impact Center is proud to offer three interactive data dashboards — the Student Trends and Enrollment Projections (STEP Dashboard), the Institutional Equity Outcomes Dashboard, and the Financial Health Dashboard — that can help leaders: ​ Assess demographic trends and enrollment projections across the United States Highlight institution-level factors related to equitable student success Compile and and analyze institutional financial health with a unique emphasis on student centricity ​ View our suite of MAPS tools that illustrate current and projected trends in higher education. DATA TOOLS STUDENT PERSPECTIVES ​ Now more than ever, elevating student voices and encouraging higher education leaders to first consider the impact their decisions have on students is critical if the industry is to thrive. The MAPS Project has centered around student perspectives on higher education, particularly focusing on the experiences of students from historically marginalized groups. LEARN MORE PARTNER WITH US CONTACT US ​ Learn about how your organization can partner with the MAPS Project to gain specific insights for strategic planning. HOW CAN MAPS HELP YOU?

Financial Health Dashboard To achieve their missions, colleges and universities need appropriate resources - but right now, resources aren't equitably distributed across the postsecondary system. This has real consequences for equitable student success, particularly for historically marginalized students. ​ Leaders need tools that provide deeper insight and equitable foresight into how financial decision-making affects student outcomes historically and moving forward. ​ To support this need, the Financial Health Dashboard offers a first-of-its-kind visibility into the financial health of more than 3,000 colleges and universities nationwide and the system as a whole. ​ Leveraging six years of data and sector-specific models, this interactive resource provides decision makers with a data-driven way to understand the current financial state, learn from peers, and together shape a system where every student can succeed. Explore the Dashboard What the dashboard is: What the dashboard is not: Uniquely comprehensive: Integrates financial data with student trend data for 3000+ colleges and universities Sector-specific: Outlines separate models for six different institutional sectors (2 and 4 year public, private, and proprietary) Interactive: Engage with data points to understand the "why" and "what" behind the scores ​ Condemning: Does not predict the future failure (or success) of any institution ​ Exhaustive: One resource to be used in conjunction with other tools for a robust and contextualized understanding ​ Static: Expect changes to the index over time as new data and feedback become available EXPLORE THE TOOL *The FHII will not include profiles for institutions who have not reported sufficient financial data to IPEDS via the IPEDS Finance Survey. Understand the Tool METHODOLOGY GLOSSARY Forbes: College Financial Grades This list provides letter grades on the institutional finances of more than 900 private, not-for-profit colleges with full-time enrollments greater than 500 students. Components of the scoring model include endowment assets per FTE (full time students), primary reserve ratio, viability ratio, core operating margin, tuition as a percentage of core revenues, return on assets, admissions yield, percentage of freshman getting grant aid, and instruction expenses per FTE. LEARN MORE NACUBO Economic Models Project This effort seeks to help institutions pursue greater financial sustainability as higher education changes. It provides a framework for strategic decision making across four pillars: mission, structure, strengths, and resources. The website offers structured engagement ideas through strategic questions to help institutions understand their own standing and also provides examples and case studies of well-positioned institutions. LEARN MORE Composite Financial Index (CFI) The CFI is a longstanding financial calculation used by many institutions that stems from the book Strategic Financial Analysis for Higher Education by individuals at accounting firm KPMG (published in 1980 but updated seven times since). CFI condenses information to a single number and is based on four key ratios: primary reserve ratio, viability ratio, net operating revenue ratio, and return on net assets ratio. This report from SHEEO discusses CFI and other financial health resources. LEARN MORE Edmit College Financial Health Center Edmit is a private company that seeks to provide third-party information on colleges and universities to prospective students and their families. Their financial health model scores 937 private institutions on how soon the combination of revenues and net assets could fail to cover operating expenses and categorizes them as either very high risk, high risk, medium risk, or low risk. Previous elements of their model were controversial since they provided a “time to closure estimate” for schools and not released publicly. LEARN MORE PASSHE Sustainability Standards Pennsylvania has received significant press for the changes happening and proposed in its higher education system. The Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) created a sustainability standard policy to simplify and evaluate the financial wellbeing of its institutions. The PASSHE model uses four key inputs that are closest to an institution’s control: enrollment, operating margin, primary reserve ratio, and university reserves. LEARN MORE Hechinger Report College Financial Fitness Tracker This financial health model measures the financial fitness of public four year universities, private non-profit universities, and two year public colleges. It is based on work by Robert Zemsky, Susan Shaman and Susan Campbell Baldridge as laid out in their book The College Stress Test. Each institution is ranked on a scale from 0 to 3 based on their performance in categories including: enrollment of first time undergraduates, retention rate, average tuition-and-fees revenue per student, state appropriations, ratio of endowment to total expenses, and the change in ratio of tuition-and-fees revenue to instructional cost. Hechinger’s model is different for each of the three types of institutions included. LEARN MORE PostsecondaryValue Commission This campaign attempts to answer the question “what is college worth?” by proposing a shared definition of value. The commission provides a measurement framework for how colleges and universities can create equitable value for their students and an action agenda to help guide changes in policy and practice. LEARN MORE HOW CAN MAPS HELP YOU?

MAPS Research The MAPS Project team at the Sorenson Impact Center has compiled several resources to complement the MAPS data tools. ​ Use cases, an additional data dashboard showing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on higher education, and topical white papers can help leaders apply context to the data found in the dashboards. To learn more about how the MAPS data tools can be applied, please read through our use cases. Dashboard Use Cases PUBLIC UNIVERSITY REGIONAL UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY COLLEGE COVID-19 Impacts As institutions grapple with the challenges brought by COVID-19, data on student preferences, state policies, and institutional reactions are more important than ever. The COVID-19 impact dashboard shows the immediate impact of the pandemic on higher education at the state, institutional, and student levels. This index is part of the MAPS Project, which is hosted and run by the Sorenson Impact Center. The MAPS project charts the shifting landscape of higher education to help create a more equitable future. This project is based on research funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. These materials do not necessarily reflect positions or policies of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. LEARN MORE ABOUT THE MAPS PROJECT Get updates on MAPS Project data tools, industry insights, and peer discussions by joining our LinkedIn community. MAPS LINKEDIN COMMUNITY White Papers & Reports Our team produced the white paper Five Themes for Centering Student Equity after holding our Fall 2020 convening. The paper synthesizes insights from a diverse group of higher education stakeholders—including students, researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers—to identify strategies to foreground equity. The takeaways of this white paper would become guiding principles as the MAPS Project continued to evolve in coming years. I n the spring of 2022, our team reviewed several leading data sources and interviewed more than 30 higher education leaders about how they measure and address equity at their institutions. While most leaders agree that addressing equity gaps is a priority, a lack of robust and consistent metrics makes it difficult to define and track equitable institutional achievement. We outline the challenges and opportunities for improving the measurement of equity and highlight several promising initiatives focused on improving high-quality postsecondary data in our white paper, Missing Metrics: An Analysis of Equity Measurement Gaps in Higher Education . ​ Threats of undergraduate enrollment decline have dominated higher education headlines for years. But are enrollment declines impacting all sectors and types of students in the same way? In Uneven Terrain: The Shifting Landscape of Enrollment Trends in Higher Education , we explore the trends around enrollment in higher education, illuminating the disparate experiences of different types of institutions in a system that is too often treated as monolithic. This paper also covers enrollment trends for students with an intersectional demographic lens, exploring trends by race, gender, and type of institution. Finally, this paper covers innovative strategies for increasing enrollment and retention, as well as system-wide tools designed to support the sector as a whole in reviving and better serving an increasingly diverse student population. ​ In the summer of 2022, the MAPS Project engaged a historically Black private college in a partnership focused on determining additional ways the college may provide targeted support to underserved students in its community. The team employed the full suite of MAPS data tools to better understand the institution's financial health, equity performance, and trends in demographics and enrollment. The result was the college's increased ability to compare their institution’s performance against peers and aspirational schools, gain insight into their strengths, identify potential areas for improvement, and validate their ongoing strategy to engage marginalized groups of learners. Read more about this partnership in the anonymized report: MAPS Tools Institutional Use Case . HOW CAN MAPS HELP YOU?

MAPS Data Tools Higher education leaders need new ways of understanding where their students are coming from and what they need to be successful. The suite of MAPS data tools offers opportunities for critical insight and foresight into institutional performance within a rapidly changing market. These tools empower leaders to ask better questions and make more informed decisions based on actionable, data-driven insights. Student Trends and Enrollment Projections Dashboard The Student Trends and Enrollment Projections (STEP) Dashboard visualizes the relationship between population data, enrollment data, and the potential impacts of trends like distance learning. The dashboard was created in response to a market need for a tool to connect the broad landscape of higher education to national and institutional actions and provide foresight into upcoming shifts that will impact the industry. EXPLORE THE DASHBOARD Financial Health Dashboard To achieve their missions, colleges and universities need appropriate resources - but right now, resources aren't equitably distributed across the postsecondary system. This has real consequences for equitable student success, particularly for historically marginalized students. Leaders need tools that provide deeper insight and equitable foresight into how financial decision-making affects student outcomes historically and moving forward. EXPLORE THE DASHBOARD Across the U.S. higher education industry, different colleges and universities produce uneven outcomes for students - placing them on a path to greater economic mobility or leaving them less well off. These gaps are especially pronounced for students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, and rural students, who face more hurdles even at well-resourced institutions. Institutional Equity Outcomes Dashboard EXPLORE THE DASHBOARD Use Cases These use cases provide fictional examples of higher education leaders' experiences using the MAPS tools to gain insights into their institutions’ financial performance with an equity lens. ​ Although the use cases are de-identified and based on fictional narratives, they do employ actual data from all three of the dashboards. ​ Read all three use cases below: REGIONAL UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY COLLEGE PUBLIC UNIVERSITY HOW CAN MAPS HELP YOU?

MODEL. ANALYZE. PROTOTYPE. SHARE. PROJECT: The MAPS Project is a student-centric initiative to chart the shifting landscape of higher education. THE MAPS OUR TRUE NORTH The MAPS Working Group seeks to survey the next decade of challenges facing higher education in the United States due to population fluctuation and economic change. ​ Drawing on data analysis from the Sorenson Impact Center as well as the diverse expertise of its members, this group will consider the prospective student impact of changes to the postsecondary landscape, proposing next steps with student equity in mind. The "true north" of the MAPS Project is student success. CONTACT US Thanks for submitting! submit + Subscribe for Updates

Institutional Equity Outcomes Dashboard Across the U.S. higher education industry, different colleges and universities produce uneven outcomes for students - placing them on a path to greater economic mobility or leaving them less well off. These gaps are especially pronounced for students of color, students from low-income backgrounds, and rural students, who face more hurdles even at well-resourced institutions. ​ To create a more equitable higher education system where every student is supported to succeed, leaders need to first examine the disparities within their own institutions. The Institutional Equity Outcomes Dashboard empowers leaders to see where their institutions stand and how they compare to peers and state and national benchmarks. The dashboard visualizes select IPEDS data, disaggregated where available, around key themes including enrollment, retention, graduation, and outcomes. This interactive tool allows leaders to visually understand their own institutions and peer and national data trends. Explore the Dashboard What the tool is: Visual: A visual representation of IPEDS data points that relate to equity for students Interactive: A tool that allows comparison of retention, graduation, and outcomes data across types of institutions for greater context Curated: Focused on institutional climate factors and the outcomes institutions produce for different groups of students What the tool is not: ​ Definitive: A definitive assessment of what makes up equity at a college or university ​ Exhaustive: An answer to the need for more student-centric postsecondary data systems ​ EXPLORE THE TOOL Understand the Tool Uses recent IPEDS data reported by more than 3,000 institutions across the U.S. ​ Displays data at the institutional level and disaggregates by race, gender, Pell status, or other factors when available ​ Includes variables related to equitable student access, experience, and outcomes METHODOLOGY Missing Metrics: An Analysis of Equity Measurement Gaps in Higher Education In Spring 2022, our team reviewed several leading data sources and interviewed more than 30 higher education leaders about how they measure and address equity at their institutions. While most leaders agree that addressing equity gaps is a priority, a lack of robust and consistent metrics makes it difficult to define and track equitable institutional achievement. We outline the challenges and opportunities for improving the measurement of equity and highlight several promising initiatives focused on improving high-quality postsecondary data in our white paper, Missing Metrics: An Analysis of Equity Measurement Gaps in Higher Education . READ THE PAPER Dashboard at a Glance View institutional details Additional Resources Several leading organizations and individuals have made important contributions to increasing transparency around the costs, value, finances, and economic models of higher education. Black Students at Public Colleges and Universities: A 50-state Report Card "More than 900,000 Black undergraduates are enrolled at public colleges and universities across the United States. This report is about the status of these students at every four-year, non-specialized, public postsecondary institution in the nation. Letter grades (A, B, C, D, F, and I) are awarded to each institution." ​ LEARN MORE USC Center for Urban Education "The Center for Urban Education (CUE) developed the Equity Scorecard™ process to help higher education professionals change practices at their college or university to effectively create equitable outcomes for historically underrepresented student groups." LEARN MORE Third Way's Economic Mobility Index "Instead of prioritizing reputation and selectivity,...the Economic Mobility Index (EMI) that attempts to answer the question: 'If the primary purpose of postsecondary education is supposed to be to catalyze an increase in economic mobility, which schools are succeeding in that goal?' The following analysis is designed to give policymakers, researchers, and consumers a better way to assess which colleges are delivering on that promise for low- and moderate-income students—and which ones are falling woefully short." LEARN MORE Postsecondary Value Commission This campaign attempts to answer the question “what is college worth?” by proposing a shared definition of value. The commission provides a measurement framework for how colleges and universities can create equitable value for their students and an action agenda to help guide changes in policy and practice. LEARN MORE We All Count "We All Count is committed to increasing data literacy – and particularly data equity literacy for everyone. We make tools, write articles and foster communities that everyone can benefit from." LEARN MORE HOW CAN MAPS HELP YOU?

Summary of Sorenson Impact Center Modeling Work Download Model STUDENT CENTRIC INFRASTRUCTURE Identify strategic models for creating a system of safety nets that fosters mobility, information symmetry, protections, and student success in higher education. Download Brief EQUITABLE STUDENT OPPORTUNITIES Identify strategies for increasing equitable opportunities for students, with special attention to academic, geographic, financial, and social student-HEI match. Download Brief ADAPTABLE INSTITUTIONS Identify strategic models and geographic opportunities for institutions to grow, transform, collaborate, or close; explore potential models for HEI change, with consideration of the unique challenges and opportunities that exist between and among urban and rural areas and MSIs, HBCUs, and HSIs. Download Brief Opportunity Briefs

Student Trends and Enrollment Projections Dashboard The Student Trends and Enrollment Projections (STEP) Dashboard visualizes the relationship between population data, enrollment data, and the potential impacts of trends like distance learning. The dashboard compiles national and industry-specific data to help higher education leaders gain foresight into upcoming shifts in the industry that could impact their institutions and students. The dashboard provides higher education leaders with an understanding of how and where undergraduate students are choosing to attend college, how that has changed over time, and what enrollment could look like in the future. These actionable insights can help inform recruitment efforts, strategic planning, resource allocation, and innovative investment opportunities. Explore the Dashboard What the dashboard is: Future-forward: Pairs historical data with demographic and enrollment projections out to 2030. Robust: Shows how many first-year, first-time, full-time students are currently enrolled at institutions within their home states and the percentage enrolled in out-of-state schools. Relevant: Displays data on exclusively remote undergraduate student enrollment, categorized by in-state vs. out-of-state status. What the dashboard is not: ​ Prescriptive: Does not prescribe specific solutions, but rather a holistic perspective of national trends impacting the industry. ​ ​ Condemning: Does not predict the future failure or success of any state, sector, or institution. ​ Exhaustive: One resource to be used in conjunction with other tools for a robust and contextualized understanding. ​ Static: Expect changes to the dashboard over time as new data and feedback become available. EXPLORE THE TOOL Understand the Tool Learn about the process of building the dashboard and how this tool relates to the broader conversation around enrollment and demographic trends. METHODOLOGY Uneven Terrain: T he Shifting Landscape of Enrollment Trends in Higher Education Threats of undergraduate enrollment decline have dominated higher education headlines for years. But are enrollment declines impacting all sectors and types of students in the same way? In this paper, we explore the trends around enrollment in higher education, illuminating the disparate experiences of different types of institutions in a system that is too often treated as monolithic. This paper also covers enrollment trends for students with an intersectional demographic lens, exploring trends by race, gender, and type of institution. Finally, this paper covers innovative strategies for increasing enrollment and retention, as well as system-wide tools designed to support the sector as a whole in reviving and better serving an increasingly diverse student population. READ THE PAPER The Dashboard at a Glance View national population and enrollment data

Student Perspectives The disruptions caused by COVID-19 accelerated several existing trends in higher education, with a disproportionate impact on students from historically marginalized backgrounds. Now more than ever, elevating student voices and encouraging higher education leaders to first consider the impact their decisions have on students is critical if the industry is to thrive. In an effort to center student perspectives in the MAPS Project’s equity work, the Student Coalition for Higher Education was created. The Coalition provided opportunities for diverse young leaders from across the nation to discuss emerging trends, engage with industry practitioners and community leaders, and contribute to key conversations. This group produced several publications and thought pieces, which are available for leaders to use to gain deeper insight into the student experience and learn how to engage their own student population in decision-making. Student Blog STUDENT BLOG Read student perspectives about a variety of topics, from disability access to menstrual equity, that impact the student experience. I am Not an Outlier In poignant visual and video format, six students share their stories of how COVID-19 impacted their higher education experience. Listen to their experiences in their own words. HEAR THEIR STORIES Student Publications The MAPS Student Coalition for Higher Education published a guidebook in 2021, Catalyzing Student Equity in Higher Education. This guidebook elevates effective and innovative strategies institutional leaders and decision makers should consider when centering equitable outcomes for students. The guidebook presents a number of case studies across a variety of critical themes when reorienting programs, services, and structures with student-equity-centricity in mind. READ THE STUDENT GUIDEBOOK Join Our Student Program The Sorenson Impact Center Student Program prepares students to lead in their chosen fields with impact through a unique pedagogy that includes both theoretical education and practical learning experiences, promoting interdisciplinary engagement, and local and global involvement. To learn more about current opportunities to get involved with projects like MAPS, please visit the Sorenson Impact Center Student Program website. STUDENT PROGRAM HOW CAN MAPS HELP YOU?

About the MAPS Project What is the MAPS Project? The purpose of the MAPS Project is to Model, Analyze, Prototype, and Share how the changing structure of higher education may help or hinder the creation of equitable outcomes for students. For colleges and universities to continue as viable anchor institutions within their communities, those who lead them must have the tools to gain insight and foresight into the future of the industry and they must do so in a way that supports the success of all students, regardless of age, race, gender, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics. The landscape of higher education is shifting across the nation. Enrollment is dropping nationwide, particularly for schools that typically serve vulnerable populations (i.e. community colleges). The “demographic cliff,” a concept coined by Nathan Grawe that predicts a steep decline of the traditional college-age student population in the US around 2025, is on the minds of many college presidents and boards. The racial makeup of future students is also changing, more rapidly in some states than in others. With these changes comes the need to understand who the future students of higher education will be and what they need from their institution to be successful. The MAPS Project came about as a way for higher education leaders to get ahead of these challenges in a way that centers equitable student outcomes as a measure of success. In order to do this, leaders need new ways to look at industry data that offer greater context around the student experience and upcoming trends—the suite of MAPS data tools was born from this need. The MAPS Project is facilitated by the Sorenson Impact Center, with generous support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation MEET THE TEAM SORENSON IMPACT CENTER MAPS TEAM Allison Boxer Managing Director Contact Megan Brewster Director Contact Timothy Schoof Associate Contact Tiffany Chan Student Fellow Contact Frederique Irwin Managing Director Contact Nicki Scott Manager Contact Alyssa Allsop Data Scientist Contact Chak Tan Director Contact Danika Borcik Manager Contact Thea Thomaseth Bugge Student Fellow Contact ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special thanks to Megan Cotten of Social Driver for providing essential communications support throughout the project. We offer our appreciation to the many team members who have contributed to the MAPS Project during its three-year lifespan: Sorenson Impact Center Staff Kathryn Colton Meredith Muller Chris Firmage Byoung-gyu Gong Max Seawright Elizabeth VanSant-Webb Austin Heywood ​ D aniel Hadley Gwendolyn Reynolds Caroline Ross Jonathan Zadra Sreeja Nair Luke Tuttle Janis Dubno ​ ​ Allison Nicholson Tiana Rogers Chad Salvadore Sonya Erickson Ellesse Balli Steph Shotorbani Students Abhi Harikumar Heidi Seabrooks-Smith Alex Rodriguez Marin Murdock Austin Hendrickson Clara Randall Madelyn Fougler Tramaine Jones JP Flores Taylor Kamhong Kurien Thomas Julianne Liu Michaela Zeno Karlyn Bradley Alex Johnson Aajah Harris Jordana Maciel Carolyn Dennis Nephi Zurita HOW CAN MAPS HELP YOU?

How can MAPS support your work? Interested in learning more about how the MAPS Project can support your higher education needs? Connect with our team to find out how we work with institutions and their leadership teams. Fill out this form and we will contact you. First Name Last Name Email Organization Position What challenges does your organization face? How might MAPS be able to assist you in your work? Submit Thanks for submitting! JOIN OUR MAPS COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER ARCHIVE ​ The MAPS newsletter seeks to provide a platform for students to speak alongside thought provoking articles and MAPS work. View past newsletters and subscribe to stay up to date on MAPS news. MARCH 2022 ​ IN PURSUIT OF STUDENT EQUITY READ MORE FEBRUARY 2022 ​ IN PURSUIT OF STUDENT EQUITY READ MORE APRIL 2022 ​ IN PURSUIT OF STUDENT EQUITY MAY 2022 ​ IN PURSUIT OF STUDENT EQUITY READ MORE READ MORE JUNE 2022 JULY 2022 ​ IN PURSUIT OF STUDENT EQUITY READ MORE ​ IN PURSUIT OF STUDENT EQUITY READ MORE SEPTEMBER 2022 ​ IN PURSUIT OF STUDENT EQUITY OCTOBER 2022 ​ IN PURSUIT OF STUDENT EQUITY READ MORE READ MORE 2022 YEAR-END ​ IN PURSUIT OF STUDENT EQUITY JANUARY 2023 ​ IN PURSUIT OF STUDENT EQUITY READ MORE READ MORE FEBRUARY 2023 ​ IN PURSUIT OF STUDENT EQUITY READ MORE APRIL 2023 ​ IN PURSUIT OF STUDENT EQUITY READ MORE MARCH 2023 ​ IN PURSUIT OF STUDENT EQUITY READ MORE MAY 2023 ​ IN PURSUIT OF STUDENT EQUITY READ MORE For more information about our team and current career opportunities at the Sorenson Impact Center, please visit our careers website. LEARN MORE Career Opportunities

I AM NOT AN OUTLIER. SIX STUDENTS WANTED TO SHARE THEIR STORIES. SEE HOW COVID-19 IS IMPACTING THEIR HIGHER ED EXPERIENCE. The pandemic is exacerbating the existing inequities faced by students. Higher education decision-makers must respond to this crisis in proactive and student-centric ways. EXPLORE THEIR STORIES. TAMMY JOLLY DANTE DIVYAM CAROLYN ERIKA