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Andrew Drinkwater

Modern Data Governance is Live (Webinar Recap) & May Webinar

Get the slides and watch the recording from the April 2, 2026 webinar here. Announcing next webinar on May 6, 2026: Reporting with Confidence - Data Lineage for Outcomes and Performance Funding

When the Report Becomes the System of Record

At many universities, the most authoritative source of institutional data is not the student information system, the data warehouse, or even the institutional research office.  It’s a dashboard. Or a spreadsheet. Or sometimes, a PDF circulated to a committee.

Data Governance as Risk Management, Not Documentation

One of the most common failure modes in data governance initiatives is an overemphasis on documentation. Institutions build large data glossaries, establish committees, and catalogue new definitions. But over time it becomes clear that while documentation exists the underlying problems remain.

Shadow Systems: The Data Infrastructure Nobody Wants to Talk About

Shadow systems are rarely documented centrally. As a result, it may not be obvious who owns a dataset, business definitions may diverge across units, and institutional data may be duplicated across dozens of small environments. When this happens, governance becomes reactive rather than proactive.

From Data Standards to Data Strategy: Why MortarCAPS is Necessary But Just the Start

At Re-University, the hallway talk was “Our systems still don’t talk to each other.” This stagnancy has downstream impacts that become more profound over time as strategic decision-making, collaboration, and future planning information sources decline in meaning, accessibility, and currency.

Re:University Reflections (Part 3): The Conversations Higher Education Needs to Be Having

Not deciding who you are, who you collaborate with or how you engage with government doesn’t preserve the status quo for your institution or the Higher Education sector, instead these non-decisions allows the status quo to erode in unmanaged ways.

Re:University Reflections (Part 2): Program Costing is No Longer an Academic Exercise

Program costing isn't new, institutions have been talking about it for decades. At Re:University the conversation changed. Program costing was seen as a tool for shared decision-making...Research presented suggested starting with fewer variables can be just as effective as building complex models.

New Leadership Masterclass from Plaid Analytics: Asking "What if?": Working with Scenarios in Enrolment Forecasting

TLDR: we're excited to announce a new leadership

Looking Back at AI-Cademy and Looking Ahead to Re-University

Institutions, faculty members, and students have learned where AI can assist and where it isn't ideal. This technology is advancing so fast that what we knew yesterday could change tomorrow. But it's likely here to stay, so we should figure out how we leverage it and where we don't.

A Year of Change, Growth, and Momentum

Here we are at the close of another extraordinary year.