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Andrew Drinkwater

When Strategy Takes a Back Seat to Spreadsheets

At too many colleges and universities, senior leaders are still spending hours each week building spreadsheets. Enrolment funnels, retention reports, financial aid summaries—their nights are spent reconciling cells when they should be shaping strategy.

When "Very Good" Isn't Good Enough: Data Quality in Surveys

Survey participation is an investment — in staff time, in student time, and in institutional strategy. The value of lean, comparable data isn't just in your own data, but what you learn when you can trust the comparison.

Too Many Targets, Not Enough Clarity

Last week you may have seen my post on Canada’

International Student Targets in Canada are Changing (again....)

The 2025 Canadian federal budget brings new clarity - and

Planting a Tree

I planted a tree in our back yard as part of an elementary school project. In the first year I made sure it had appropriate water, soil, and enough light. But I could barely see its early growth. Similarly, changes in higher education take time to ripple through the system.

Plaid Analytics Joins MortarCAPS Higher Learning Data Standard

Today we are thrilled to announce that we have joined

Scenarios vs. Predictions

Relying only on predictions risks locking institutions into a false sense of security. Scenarios, on the other hand, open up conversations about resilience, trade-offs, and strategic agility.

Mergers & Acquisitions in Higher Ed

Mergers and acquisitions are increasingly seen as tools to address financial stress, enrolment challenges, and competitive pressures. But they are not without pitfalls. Yet, when handled well they can create opportunities for students and preserve legacies that might otherwise be lost.

The Wisdom of the Crowd in Enrolment Forecasting

The crowd sees signals that may not show up in your data systems—early student concerns, housing bottlenecks, employer demand shifts. Together, they create a more balanced view of the future.

Setting Enrolment Targets in Higher Education - Part 4: How Predictive Modelling and AI are Transforming Enrolment Planning

Enrolment Forecasting is fundamentally a predictive modelling process: given a series of inputs, what are the outputs likely to be? But enrolment target setting is a little different. It’s a human process, informed by data: what is our strategic goal, and how do we get there?