CEO AND FOUNDER OF GRAY ASSOCIATES

Robert Atkins

Bob led Gray’s entry into the education industry and the development of Gray’s proprietary industry databases and service offerings. He has worked directly with many of Gray’s education clients, consulting with CEOs and CMOs on business strategy, pricing, location selection, curricular efficiency, and program strategy.

Masterclass Graphs coming out of book
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Robert Atkins

Start, Stop, or Grow: A Master Class on Academic Program Evaluation and Management

Improve your institution’s academic program portfolio with Gray’s free Master Class series led by experienced higher-education decision-makers. This four-part series covers data analysis, AI and machine learning, program evaluation, and student success integration. Stay ahead of the competition and ensure success by evaluating programs based on mission, academics, markets, and margins.

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Robert Atkins

What Are the Three Qualities of a Winning Academic Program?

Discover the unique blend of mission, market, and margins that makes a winning program. Take a deep dive into the exciting process of defining your mission, understanding student demand, and maximizing program economics. Join the journey towards creating academic programs that not only drive success for your students, but also leave a lasting impact on your institution and community.

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Robert Atkins

How to Determine Alignment Between Jobs and Academic Programs

Explore the connection between academic programs and employment opportunities with this in-depth analysis of the crosswalk between degree and employment. Learn how to use this tool to align academic programs with the right employment opportunities and understand the limitations of commonly used data. This thought-provoking piece will challenge your perceptions and change the way you think about degrees, jobs, and wages.

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Robert Atkins

Leadership Matters. Now More than Ever.

Explore the challenges facing higher education and discover the keys to successful leadership in this thought-provoking blog by Melissa Morriss-Olson. From truth-telling and truth-seeking to building relationships and taking bold action, learn how the best leaders are navigating the rapidly changing landscape of higher education and making a difference for their institutions and students.

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Robert Atkins

How to Cut Through the Chaos and Define Your Institution’s Markets

Defining your markets is an important step in the program evaluation process, but it isn’t always a simple one. For some colleges, the definition of markets is more complex. The college might serve several markets. Regardless, it is important to correctly define the markets to be analyzed so that you can discover new opportunities for your institution and create a collaborative PES.

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Robert Atkins

Academic Program Economic Analysis Can Yield Surprising Finds

Think you know which academic programs are high revenue contributors for your college? An economic analysis will reveal the truth. Don’t risk your institutions financial health on guesses or outdated rules of thumb. Learn how to ensure data-informed outcomes.

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Robert Atkins

Determining Market Saturation for Academic Programs

Higher education is becoming more competitive, but there are still many opportunities for growth – if you know how to look for them. One secret is distinguishing between competition, which is ubiquitous, and market saturation, which is rare.

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Robert Atkins

What Is an Academic Program Evaluation Process?

An academic program evaluation process is data-informed, transparent, collaborative, and intensive when done correctly. Having a strong analytical foundation and a clear, inclusive process for program evaluation leads to better decisions, strengthens relationships across the campus, and is consistent with the principles of shared governance.

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Robert Atkins

Why Do You Need a Program Evaluation System (PES)?

A sound Program Evaluation System (PES) marshals the data, software, people, and decision-making processes that enable fast, well-informed, and broadly supported program decisions. Several of the largest and most successful participants in higher education now use a Program Evaluation System (PES) to guide their program decisions.

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Robert Atkins

How to Manage Curricular Efficiency

In an excerpt from Start, Stop, or Grow, Robert Atkins discusses curricular efficiency, which measures, manages, and improves the units of education that can be delivered for a given amount of instructional cost and quality, and the importance of the cost per student credit hour (SCH).