Capitalizing on College: How Higher Education Went from Mission Driven to Margin Obsessed

by Joshua Travis Brown

In Capitalizing on College Joshua Brown skillfully illustrates how tuition-driven colleges and universities have been forced to innovate and adopt market-driven financial strategies. These institutions have longstanding commitments to offering access and opportunity to marginalized students, but the promise of improved educational outcomes stemming from federal policy changes aimed at increasing market competition never materialized. Instead, as a result of demographic shifts and the privatization of higher education, competition for tuition dollars meant these colleges had to adopt new strategies to find more students in new, uncharted peripheral markets to offset losses stemming from their legitimizing residential campus experience.

Capitalizing on College reveals how three of the strategies these schools adopted--growing a traditional endowment, pioneering a periphery market, or even creating a network of multiple markets--were initially successful but ultimately fell short in raising enough revenue to support operating a residential campus. Only a fourth accelerated strategy of going to scale raised the necessary funds--but at the cost of undercutting their mission by leading them to view students as dollars.

Through a vivid and compelling narrative that weaves together candid interviews with over 150 university leaders, Capitalizing on College reveals the untold story of the missing middle--what market competition has wrought on higher education from the inside vantage point of the colleges themselves. It shows how the unanticipated consequences of federal policy changes have ultimately distorted the values of mission-driven schools. Capitalizing on College offers a timely and fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the changes shaking higher education and what the future holds for colleges and universities in this new financial climate

Genres: Education

482 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 26, 2025

Reviews

[Paloma · Rating 5 out of 5]

When we lived in Lynchburg, we know we could always count on one man being at Golf Park early in the morning. We finally got to talking with him and discovered that he was writing a book. This one.

(Sorry it took me so long to read, Josh. I haven’t been a very fast reader this year)

I went into this book with very little understanding of how colleges operated from a financial standpoint.
And wow was this eye-opening. It’s heartbreaking to see the tensions that these colleges live in, and very interesting to read about how they are approaching these challenges. I have so much respect for Josh and the time and energy he spent putting into this book. He approached it in such a compassionate, yet factually, story-telling way.

[Jason Lawyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Illuminating and educational! This book gives a brand new narrative of higher-ed institutions, only possible from JTB’s captured stories and confidential remarks of 151 interviewed college and university leaders (alias institution names used to protect individual participants).

JTB provides a brief historical overview of the university system before providing his in-depth analysis. The book is very well organized and methodical, which is key to following the author’s inventive classification of four models or strategic approaches that institutions recently used to carry out its mission…or to create a new enrollment driven culture.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story covering 8 religious institutions. He discovered various cultures and ultimately how these evolving communities affected the human soul of its leaders. The financial growth of the higher-ed system is so much more than observing an overhaul of infrastructure, investment in athletics, and raising tuition expenses. This book provides a brilliant use of a “stories” approach as opposed to “dollars and cents” research in order to understand the full story.

This is a superb read with multiple parallels to be made and applied to almost any business model!

[M. Patricia Diaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Capitalizing on College lifted the idealistic veil of mission driven education for the betterment of society. This book is insightful, very well written, honest, and (for me) heartbreaking.

For students and academics, there is a chapter in which Dr. Brown dives into methods and considerations that are very worth reading as we think through our own research methodologies.

For business leaders, there are many lessons in academia that are transferable to the for-profit world. As human resources business partner I have seen and coached leaders through ethical dilemmas brought by profit and doing the right thing.

For people interested in ethics – a must read! What would you do when your passion for instruction is at odds with the survival of your institution? Would you pass along the burden to your students or members of your team? And does this competitive environment towards profit and survival need to be re-thought?

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not an area I have had, or previously thought, to delve into on my own (given my packed schedule as a higher ed professional). Dr. Brown provides an excellent resource that any professional in higher education would find helpful in understanding the current context of higher education, especially those who work at tuition-driven institutions. Well written, excellent stories from higher ed leaders, practical, and approachable (not overly heady).