Using the Pilbara predictive model to test crisis management options for university leadership. By Michelle Brooke, Lea Patterson, Andrew Faulkner and Professor Alan Pettigrew BSc (Hons) PhD FAICD Introduction Although they are no longer run, the LH Martin Institute (University of Melbourne) used to offer courses for aspiring University Vice-Chancellors (VCs) covering a range of […]
READ MOREA common theme across the Higher Education news articles over the past couple of weeks has been about the urgent need for universities to save costs. A quick peek at any institution’s financial statements will reveal that, not surprisingly, salaries are the biggest single line item. While Pilbara Group will be releasing a newsletter next […]
READ MOREManagement accounting, as a discipline, is going through a resurgence. Primarily driven by the huge increase in the amount of data available for analysis, financial professionals are needing to look beyond traditional business metrics and recognize the potential of embracing a wider set of data. Management accounting has been around for 100 years, so it’s […]
READ MOREThe following is an extract from this article in NACUBO Business Officer Magazine September 2019 by Margo Vanover Porter and discusses the Pilbara model at the University of Maryland. The model was implemented in 2017 with our US consulting partner, Grant Thornton and is updated on an annual basis. After attending a NACUBO conference […]
READ MORESaskatoon, in the heart of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan sits further north than Hobart is south, by about 10° in latitude, (for the navigators amongst you). As the crow flies, it is 14,612 kilometers from Adelaide by the shortest route across the Pacific. Winter temperatures in Saskatoon get serious, with the thermometer hovering around of -19° […]
READ MOREThe Pilbara Higher Ed conference was held September 3-4 in Brisbane at the Rydges Hotel in Southbank. It was a great crowd and generated a lot of interesting discussions over the two day event. The focus of the conference was Data Driven Decision Making and in particular how cost and predictive models can be used […]
READ MORESkip the Rapid Prototype and go straight to the Rapid Fully Functioning Model It’s a common situation around the globe for financial analysts working for Higher Education institutions. Some type of looming crisis, major project or big decision requires detailed financial analysis… or as has happened here in Australia, the Government now requires universities to […]
READ MOREEvery university goes through an annual budgeting cycle. There are about as many budget processes as there are universities but they all have one thing in common: the need to take account of changes in enrolment, governmental support, and other external factors. This is not easy because each potential factor affects various parts of the […]
READ MOREPrevious blogs examined how the Pilbara model helps identify programs for investment and disinvestment (#5) and illuminates the economic relationships between programs (degrees) and individual courses (subjects). Now we turn to “Program Review” – a deep dive into the specifics of particular programs. Traditional reviews look at a program’s curricular structure, the institution’s capacity (in […]
READ MORECombining the analytic insights from using a tool such as Microsoft Power BI together with a robust cost model can open up a previously hidden set of views to management, particularly with respect to courses (subjects) and programs (degrees). In the past, this data has not purposefully be hidden, but rather it’s simply not captured […]
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