Author: Lea Patterson

The Margin Squeeze: How Higher Education Institutions Can Identify and Fix Margin Problems Before They Become Critical

The Silent Crisis in Higher Education Finances For most Australian universities, margins have become the silent challenge—slowly eroding year after year, often invisible until the impact becomes undeniable. Teaching margins, once healthy buffers that funded innovation and strategic priorities, are now squeezed thin or negative across many disciplines. Understanding why this happens—and more importantly, what […]

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Higher Ed Enterprise AI – Why Professor Massy’s Economic Model Is the Missing Foundation

Universities around the world are investing heavily in Enterprise AI. Yet despite the promise, a large proportion of enterprise AI initiatives fail to deliver meaningful, sustainable value. The reason is rarely the technology itself—it’s the absence of a coherent economic model that explains how the institution actually works. This is where Professor William F. Massy’s […]

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The Economics of Civil Engineering: Insights from Australian Sector Benchmarks

Understanding the Landscape Civil Engineering stands as one of the foundational disciplines in higher education, yet its financial performance reveals fascinating insights when compared to peer engineering programs and non-engineering fields. Using comprehensive Australian sector benchmarks1 from 2024, we can uncover patterns that transcend borders and offer valuable lessons for universities worldwide. The Cost Efficiency […]

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Governing AI: The Future of Higher Education Financial Management

Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping how universities manage data, plan resources, and make financial decisions. But as AI adoption accelerates, so too does the need for strong governance, transparency, and trust. In a recent Pilbara Group webinar, industry leaders from Intelligen, Snowflake, and Pilbara Group came together to explore what responsible, governed AI looks like […]

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The 2026 EDUCAUSE Top 10: Why Cost-Modelling Must Be Part of the Conversation

The recent EDUCAUSE report — “2026 EDUCAUSE Top 10: Making Connections” — identifies ten pressing technology, data and organisational issues for higher education institutions around the world. (EDUCAUSE Review) While many of these issues focus on technology and data, a clear theme is emerging: institutions must build connections — across people, functions, data systems, and […]

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Higher Ed – Hidden Cost is your Enemy! – ABC and AI can find it!

I was chatting with Gary Cokins on LinkedIn last week about using Activity-Based Costing (ABC) for university financial management and I mentioned that by using traditional financial accounting methods a lot of costs could be missed, specifically cross-subsidization and overhead. Cross-subsidization occurs where the costs of teaching subjects are covered by other schools, think elective […]

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Cost of Higher Ed Teaching – Part 5 Timeline

Following on from our post on ‘why’ institutions should be delving into Academic Program Financial Management, and the previous tips on data requirements, project staffing, and model business rules and assumptions, this week’s tip looks at managing expectations relating to timelines. Tip 4 – Timeline (time to build, time to update) Let’s be honest – […]

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Cost of Higher Ed Teaching – Part 4 Business Rules

Following on from our post on ‘why’ institutions should be delving into Academic Program Financial Management, and the previous tips on data requirements and project staffing, this week’s tip provides advice on Model Business Rules and Assumptions. Tip 3 – Model Business Rules and Assumptions (a list of some of most essential ones) Firstly, the […]

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Cost of Higher Ed Teaching – Part 3 Project Staffing

Following on from our post on ‘why’ institutions should be delving into Academic Program Financial Management, and last week’s post on data requirements, this week’s tip provides advice on the level of project support needed to support these models. Tip 2 – Project Staffing (who is needed and why) These types of models often require […]

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Cost of Higher Ed Teaching – Part 2 Data

Following on from last week’s blog post on ‘why’ institutions should be delving into Academic Program Financial Management, this post provides advice on the types of data needed to support these models. Tip 1 – Data Data extracts are required from multiple siloed systems. These include Financial Management, HR/Payroll, Student Management Systems, Timetabling and sometimes […]

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