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Andrew Drinkwater

Setting Enrollment Targets in Higher Education - Part 1: What Are Enrollment Targets—and How Do We Set Them?

Good targets follow the SMART principle: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time-bound. But enrolment planning layers on additional complexity that SMART alone doesn’t capture.

AI-Cademy Canada: Five Takeaways on AI in Higher Education

AI is changing everything in higher education, but that doesn’t mean every institution needs to dive in headfirst. Thoughtful, strategic adoption is key. At Plaid Analytics, we’re working with universities to ensure AI is useful, ethical, and impactful.

Announcing Course Forecast

Announcing Course Forecast: an innovative tool that brings multi-year, scenario-based planning capabilities to course offerings. Designed to help institutions stay agile, Course Forecast provides key insights that support efficient, data-driven decisions in a dynamic enrolment landscape.

Brace for Impact: Projecting International Enrolment Declines in Atlantic Canadian Universities

The ripple effects of international enrolment declines will be felt across budgets, programming, and staffing. Yet, hard times have often been the catalyst for strategic reinvention.

Navigating Program Closure in an Era of Budget Cuts

Conducting analysis in advance ensures that program closure decisions are strategic, transparent, and aligned with the institution's long-term goals. It helps academic leaders make data-informed choices, mitigate risks, and optimize resources while maintaining quality and supporting student success.

Mentorship in Unexpected Places

Following my post on careers not being linear, this week I was hoping to write about the value of mentorship. Sometimes life throws you a curve ball that hits harder than you expected.

Happy 8th Birthday, Plaid Analytics

June 20, 2016. Eight years ago today, Patrick Lougheed and I announced the start of Plaid Analytics. It’s been a heck of an adventure, and we’re just getting started.

Is New Brunswick Being Shortchanged on International Student Allocation?

With major changes to Canada’s international student visa allocation rules beginning this year, it has been an exciting/nerve-wracking period for enrolment planning in Canada. This analysis suggests New Brunswick is being short-changed on allocations relative to their share of the population.

On the hot seat. Pitching Plaid Analytics.

Within Canadian higher education, everyone has heard about the international study permit changes. In the tech community, many have but they are less familiar with the impacts. Taking the time to explain it to an audience outside of higher ed has helped me think through the core message.

A Tale of Two Provinces: Projecting Enrolment Impacts of Study Permit Changes in Alberta and British Columbia

It’s not too often that the federal government makes a policy that so directly benefits one province over most others (technically two provinces will have large growth: Alberta and Quebec, but we think the latter will struggle to hit their higher target near term).