Lesson Learned

Sharing potential student enrollment numbers from MCC’s initial Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) as part of the initial Request for Proposals gave bidders the incentive to overestimate their ability to recruit and retain students.

Sharing potential student enrollment numbers from MCC’s initial Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) as part of the initial Request for Proposals gave bidders the incentive to overestimate their ability to recruit and retain students. Unless due diligence on costs and willingness to pay are highly reliable, MCC should not be prescriptive about student numbers or budget estimates and should not share details of the CBA parameters.