Andrew Laws

Contact Andrew Laws

Andrew Laws

Andrew has over 15 years of higher education experience and leads the strategy and operations service line in Huron’s education business.

About Andrew

Andrew helps colleges and universities maximize, allocate and leverage financial resources. Andrew’s optimization projects include revenue enhancement and cost reduction initiatives designed to maximize resources; budgeting and financial modeling initiatives designed to align resources with strategic priorities; and organizational assessment initiatives designed to improve resource allocation. Andrew has led optimization projects at over 80 institutions. In addition to his role at Huron, Andrew serves as an adjunct faculty member at Vanderbilt University.

Throughout his career, Andrew has:

  • Helped over 50 institutions assess their approaches to resource management, allocation and planning to determine how effectively the models support institutional strategies, drive stakeholder behaviors and incentivize operational efficiencies. Dozens of these assessments led to transitions from incremental budget models to responsibility center management (RCM).
  • Led administrative resource optimization projects at over 40 institutions, many of which supported institutional leaders with unfunded strategic plans. Following the Great Recession in 2008, these efforts shifted primarily to assisting institutions in financial distress.
  • Worked with over 20 institutions to evaluate their academic portfolios by developing instructional costing models to facilitate faculty discussions about the need for a balanced and sustainable set of academic programs.

Prior to joining Huron, Andrew spent four years in investment banking, focused on financial modeling, ratio analysis and revenue and cost forecasting.

Areas of Expertise

  • Budgeting and Financial Management
  • Strategic Planning
  • Business Planning
  • Business Unit Strategy
  • Academic Affairs

Industries

  • Education & Research

Education & Certifications

  • Ed.D., Vanderbilt University
  • MBA, University of Chicago
  • BBA, University of Mississippi

Insights

  • Clarify Your Institution's Financial Picture

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    Institutions need comprehensive budget planning models that deeply engage stakeholders with the right set of data and incentives.

  • Faculty Workload: Instrument for Transformation

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    Huron has outlined a framework for higher education’s navigation through the pandemic and its economic impacts.

  • Academic Portfolio: Achieve Financial Success with a Data-Driven Approach to Academic Portfolio Management

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    Through Huron’s extensive higher education experience, we understand the opportunities, lessons learned and challenges associated with managing an academic portfolio.

  • Connecting the Dots for Student Success

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    Learn how to achieve student success and financial sustainability by using strategic planning and integration across your higher education campus.

  • Higher Education Transformation for the Campus of Tomorrow

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    In partnership with EdTech Times, Huron embarked on a six-part podcast series exploring trends and strategies in higher education with industry experts.

  • Data-Driven Academic Portfolio: Tips for Getting Started

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    Institutions should think of their academic programs as a portfolio where leaders maximize resources, market relevance and mission-driven activities.

  • Academic Portfolio: What Data and Collaboration Can Teach

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    Through Huron’s extensive higher education experience, we understand the opportunities, lessons learned and challenges associated with managing an academic portfolio.

  • Budget Model Redesign: Moving Beyond Excel and Introducing Technology

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    For higher education, considering, designing, selecting and sustaining a new budget model requires a deep understanding of the specific attributes of each model.

  • Building Higher Education’s Future Business Model

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    Higher education institutions will need to adapt their business models to engage a changing student population and overcome unsustainable cost structures.

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Available to Purchase

  • Andrew Laws Book

    Responsibility Center Management: A Guide to Balancing Academic Entrepreneurship With Fiscal Responsibility

    Multiple economic and political challenges have driven universities to change how they fund and finance education and research during the last 50 to 60 years. In Responsibility Center Management, authors John R. Curry, Andrew L. Laws and Jon C. Strauss describe the many nuances and techniques institutions can use to implement RCM in this newly revised second edition.

    Purchase

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