Colleges and universities
A sustainable cost per student, without cutting what matters
Amanex offers higher education operations consulting for colleges and universities facing fewer applicants and costs that won’t come down on their own. We fix the administrative processes that drive cost per student, then leave them running.
Sound familiar?
Enrollment is shrinking faster than the work behind it
- “Applications are down, but our administrative costs haven’t moved.”
- “Every office keeps its own spreadsheet, and the cabinet can’t get one version of the numbers.”
- “Searches drag on for months, and our best candidates accept somewhere else.”
- “We know some of these processes are broken. Nobody has the time to fix them.”
Your departments are capable. They’re also stretched running the work as it is, and specialized process improvement expertise is rare on most campuses.
Why now
The applicant pool is getting smaller
US high school graduates peaked in 2025 and are projected to fall 13% by 2041, according to WICHE. Fewer graduates means fewer applicants for most institutions, while salaries, facilities and systems cost what they cost.
That puts cost per student at the center of every budget conversation. The question is whether you cut across the board or redesign the work so you can protect the programs and people that matter. We help you do the second.
Where we start
The offices colleges ask for most
Performance and Analytics Office
Data pulled together from the systems it’s scattered across, analysis behind big decisions such as cost per student or next year’s staffing, and a monthly scorecard your board reads in five minutes.
Days to produce the board packShare of goals with an owner and a measure
People Office
Hiring, onboarding, pay (classification and compensation) and retention for staff roles.
Days to hireOffer acceptanceFirst-year turnoverPay position vs. market
Business Office
Purchasing, vendor contracts, budgeting and the monthly close.
Days to closeSpend under contractDays to get paid
Operations Office
Enrollment and intake handoffs, scheduling and service quality.
Time to serveIncomplete filesRework
When the change is bigger, such as merging programs, consolidating offices or resetting a budget, we take it on as a Fix project. Transformation projects →
What we bring
Corporate-grade methods, sized for a campus
We use Lean Six Sigma (a set of methods for removing waste and errors from a process), design thinking and business analytics, chosen to fit the problem. Lean Six Sigma is one tool among several. Sometimes the fix is a cleaner handoff, sometimes it’s a dashboard your cabinet actually opens.
Edwine Michel, our founder, is a Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt with 20 years running operations and degrees in education and business. He served as Director of Recruitment and Retention in the nation’s 10th-largest school district, and our deepest track record is in education workforce work. About →
How we’d start
Two weeks, your records, a plain answer
We start with Diagnose, about two weeks. We look at how the work actually flows, using your own records, and show you where it breaks and what it costs in dollars and hours. You get a short, plain report and a recommended fix.
Then comes Fix, 4 to 12 weeks of doing the work. If you want, Sustain follows: your staff get simple procedures and short training, or we match you with a vetted specialist, and we stay on as the quality check.
Colleges usually engage us directly or through an RFP. Fixed fees, agreed up front, with scope and dates in writing so your procurement office has what it needs.
Common questions
Questions from colleges and universities
Do you work with both public and private institutions?
Yes. Public institutions usually route the work through procurement, and we work with that process. Private colleges often engage us directly. The first step is the same for both.
Can you help us prepare for a budget reduction?
Yes. A Diagnose shows where time and money go today, so cuts land on waste first. When the change is larger, such as consolidating offices or programs, we take it on as a Fix project with clear owners and measures.
Will you work with our existing systems?
Yes. We work from the systems and records you already have. We don’t sell software, and the scorecard we build pulls from what you run today.
How do you handle student and employee data?
We use secure, modern tools, including AI, under our team’s direct supervision. Your information is never used to train anyone’s models. We’ll walk your IT and compliance leads through exactly how we handle it before we start.
What happens after the fix is in place?
You choose. Your staff can carry it with simple procedures and short training, or we match you with a vetted specialist and stay on as the quality check with a monthly scorecard.
Tell us where your costs are stuck.
In 30 minutes we’ll tell you honestly whether we can help, and what a diagnostic would show.
