Can this program work?
Should we do this here?
Provost Lab helps academic leaders evaluate new programs, strengthen existing ones, and manage the academic portfolio. It brings market evidence and financial assumptions together with your institution’s own context, so the analysis fits the decision you are actually facing.
Program decisions are getting harder, and static reports are not enough.
Student demand is shifting, labor markets are changing, competition is expanding, and budgets are tightening. Every program decision also carries consequences for faculty, students, mission, and long-term sustainability.
Traditional feasibility studies often arrive after the conversation has moved on, and they freeze their assumptions in place. Provost Lab keeps the evidence, the assumptions, and the institutional context in one environment, so leaders can revisit the analysis as the decision develops rather than commissioning another report.
Built around the decisions academic leaders actually face.
Program feasibility
Can this work, and should we launch it here?
Test a new program idea against student and labor-market demand, the competitive landscape, financial assumptions, curricular alignment with emerging roles, and its effect on the programs you already offer.
How feasibility worksProgram viability
What should we do with this program now?
Look past the low-enrollment label to understand what is actually happening, including demand, competitive position, curriculum relevance, and institutional value, and identify ways to strengthen the program for the years ahead.
How viability worksPortfolio strategy
How should we manage the whole academic portfolio?
See how programs interact as a system of mission commitments, cross-subsidies, synergies, and risks, and where your institution stands against the peers you choose.
How portfolio strategy works
What you get: a complete, cited decision package.
Every study follows the same guided sequence and ends with a report ready for cabinet, deans, or board discussion, with each figure cited to its source and each assumption stated.
- FrameYour institution, the program, and the comparators you choose
- AnalyzeDemand, labor market, earnings, and competition
- ModelEnrollment and financial scenarios with visible assumptions
- PublishA cited report, exportable as a web page or print-ready document
Test assumptions while the decision is still open.
Instead of waiting weeks for a PDF, leaders can change an assumption, compare scenarios, and follow up on a new question in minutes, including during a cabinet or deans’ meeting. Speed is not the point in itself. The point is keeping the analysis connected to the conversation where the decision is actually made.
Provost Lab does not replace academic judgment. It structures it.
No enterprise integration.
No data warehouse project or implementation cycle. Studies start from public federal data and your context, so the platform is useful on day one.
Leader-selected comparators.
Peer sets are chosen by the leaders who know which institutions and programs actually matter, not assigned by a generic formula.
Visible assumptions.
Every financial input carries its documented assumption, and each one can be changed and re-run as the conversation develops.
Institutional context built in.
Mission, identity, regional role, and portfolio position are part of the analysis from the start.
See what Provost Lab can show you.
Request access to the demonstration environment and work through a real feasibility, viability, or portfolio question with us.