Plaid Analytics

In enrollment forecasting within academia, we often focus on key metrics that shape day-to-day decision-making in higher education: headcount, full-time equivalent (FTE), retention, and persistence. While completion is important, we generally look at it from a rate perspective rather than focusing on the total number of completions per term. However, outside the walls of academia, the total number of completions can carry a lot more weight. Take our work with a medical school, for instance, where we forecast how many residents (doctors in training) will be active at any given time, their levels, the clinical programs they’re part of, and who is funding them. This is critical not just for academic planning but also for ensuring hospitals—already running at capacity—are properly staffed. A small town, like the one where my dad lives, needs these forecasts to be accurate so that the emergency department doesn't have to close due to lack of staff. But from the perspective of a provincial government, what really matters is knowing how many family doctors will graduate this year, next year, and the year after. This insight is vital because we’re facing a shortage of family doctors. By predicting these numbers, governments can make informed decisions about expanding capacity, staffing hospitals, and ultimately improving medical outcomes for patients across the province.

We're excited to be returning to sponsor the CIRPA-ACPRI conference in Fredricton starting October 20th. This year, we're hosting a roundtable: Enrolment Forecasting in Changing Times: Insights from Canadian Universities and Colleges. We hope you can join us for this engaging conversation. We'd love great questions and insights from those who attend. Questions in advance? Contact Andrew Drinkwater, MBA.

🎙 New podcast episode alert. 💥 I'm happy to share the newest episode of the Going the Distance Podcast. In this episode, I hosted a very special guest, Andrew Drinkwater, MBA, Co-Founder & President at Plaid Analytics. 👉 Want to learn more about Plaid Analytics and how they help Higher Ed institutions with their data and institutional planning? 👉 Thinking of taking the leap and starting your own business? 👉 Looking for some pointers on how to break into Higher Education consulting? Then this episode is for you. Link to my podcast homepage is in my bio. You can also find all of the episodes on major streaming platforms such as Spotify and Apple Podcasts. #podcast #highereducation #raveneye

Canada Falling Short of International Student Visa Caps: What It Means for the Future. Building a strong brand takes years, but it only takes a moment to harm it. Canada's international student market faces this challenge as actual student arrivals fall well below government-imposed visa caps. While adjusting these limits might seem like a solution, it doesn’t matter much if students no longer choose Canada as their destination. It’s a bit like managing your personal budget. Imagine you just replaced your roof, so you're cutting back in other areas. Normally, you spend $1,000 a month on groceries, but now you've trimmed it to $750 (let’s assume that’s realistic!). The thing is, even though you’ve adjusted your budget, you only have $500 left to spend. You can raise your grocery budget to $900, but it won’t change the fact that you’re still limited by what you actually have. Next week, I’ll be diving into how we can model the effects of these reduced international student numbers and explore what steps we might need to take over the next five years to course correct using Plaid Analytics Forecasting tools. Stay tuned! https://lnkd.in/gMM7q3US #cdnpse #highereducation #internationaleducation

We're committed to being a catalyst for positive change in higher education, one data point at a time. At Plaid Analytics, we're not just analyzing the present; we're helping to shape a more equitable, accessible, and successful future for students and institutions alike. We envision a world where data-driven decision-making is the norm, not the exception, in higher education – where every institution, regardless of size or resources, has the tools they need to support student success and drive meaningful change. 

Our latest blog series on Data Governance Readiness is here! Check out Melinda Roy's article on Overlooked Data Literacy Skills in Higher Education Roles. https://lnkd.in/gyKWcndD Want to learn more about our upcoming workshops? Leave a comment saying "workshop" below or connect with Andrew Drinkwater, MBA.

Strategic Enrolment Management matters in times of crisis but also in times of opportunity. SEM helps ensure that your institution serves the right learners at the right time with opportunities that help them meet their goals. SEM can support longer-range planning, such as planning out what your enrolments look like through 2030. Maybe you expect declines - either because of demographics or because of regulatory issues. Or maybe you expect growth - also possibly because of demographics or because of regulatory issues. Growth and non-growth scenarios can be based on many different ideas. A few we see regularly in our practice: continued trends from within the institution; based on labour market projections; benchmarking against peers; government funding based; aspirational; pessimistic; and, so many others. If you're drowning in spreadsheets but not really getting the kind of SEM plan you'd like to see going forward, we should chat. Our team of SEM experts at Plaid Analytics can help you formulate a plan, integrate data to support your decisions, ensure your team is comfortable with changing paradigms, and ultimately predict what your enrolment looks like under different scenarios. #highereducation #enrollmentmanagement

Not sure about you, but we like it when acronyms are better clarified. FTES - Full Time Equivalent Students is clearer than simply FTE. Data Governance can help your institution come to a shared understanding of different terms, make sure that different perspectives are included.

One of our original motivations for launching Plaid Analytics back in 2016 was to make data & analytics accessible for more institutions. We've now worked with 15 of 25 public post-secondary institutions in BC, either directly or via projects with application, transfer, government, or research organizations. We're really proud of the work we've partnered on with you, ranging from enrolment planning to data integration to data governance to research. I guess that idea of making sure that data & analytics expertise could be leveraged by more institutions came true! Thanks for collaborating with us and raising the bar, and thanks to our teammates who make it all possible. If you haven't had a chance to work with us yet, odds are pretty good that if you ask colleagues at 2 other institutions, someone will have. We'd love to learn more about the challenges and opportunities you're seeing with the changing enrolment landscape. #highereducation #analytics

We're slamming the brakes! Wait... was that the accelerator? Canada is on track to process more international study permits than last year. This is a bit unexpected given the discussions this spring. However: - An approved permit is different than a student showing up. - Institutions may be choosing to process more students earlier, and in earlier terms (a direct incentive of the government choosing calendar year without regard to academic year structures) - We don't (yet) know if these permits are disproportionately graduate - remember, graduate programs are currently exempt from the cap. Cue the arms race for institutions launching programs at grad level. - Geographic distribution may play a role. It does look like Ontario is (only) slightly down, while BC is a little bit up. So it's not playing out the way the government choreographed, but there may be nuance if we had better public data. #highereducation #internationalstudypermits Plaid Analytics https://lnkd.in/gR_kqXnB