The future of self-assurance

For over four decades I have worked in education, particularly independent education: K to 12, vocational, English language, higher education and corporate training.

One consistency has been compliance. Not necessarily with a capital “C”, but always with the intention and purpose of QUALITY outcomes.

The tertiary education sector is the third or fourth most regulated industry. And globally, Australia’s tertiary education sector is the most regulated.

The result is a great deal of focus upon legislation, rules, regulations, standards, audits, reviews, reporting, show cause and appeals, addressing every minute aspect of a provider institution’s actions.

This is on top of the normal obligations of a business to comply with the Company Directors Act, ASIC requirements, Modern Slavery obligations, Privacy and Data Collection, contract law, tax law, WHS, child safety, employment law, consumer law, and the laws of any territory outside of Australia where they have operational investments (e.g. transnational education). And let’s be honest, I am only touching the surface when it comes to business obligations and compliance.

And to top all this off, the two main regulators, ASQA and TEQSA, have both implemented a ‘self-assurance’ model for compliance. This means you, the provider, are now responsible for monitoring and managing compliance in real time. It also means that you can no longer simply meet the requirements, as the obligation of continuous improvement is a direct mechanism for measuring your performance.

How does a provider develop effective oversight of all this without needing a team of experts dedicated to the task? How do they even find a sufficiently skilled and experienced team? And most importantly, how do they afford the salary costs of this team?

So with the commercialisation of artificial intelligence and its rapid adoption for a multitude of intentions and purposes, some of them even worthy, it seemed to me that there was an opportunity to develop a resource for tertiary education providers. Something that they could use in real time to identify, alert, mitigate and resolve risks, and meet compliance, reporting and contractual obligations, without blowing the budget.

Now don’t get me wrong, you still need a top tier compliance specialist. But the team that sits underneath this expert can have dual roles in administration, finance, IT and so on. Their skills and knowledge can be less abstract and focused on process. More functional than strategic.

Along comes CampusQ, the brainchild of Alan Manly, who over a decade ago founded and then ran Group Colleges Australia (GCA) until its sale a few years ago.

Alan is not someone to sit on his hands or to accept the mundane and mediocre. With a professional background in IT, he set about building a customised student management system more effective and cost efficient than any of the commercial tools around, and successfully rolled it out at GCA.

Alan has been known to me for well over a decade for his purposeful leadership, his passion for quality education and learning, and for doing things right (ethically and professionally).

So when the opportunity to consult on an AI enhanced compliance platform came along, I jumped at it.

The opportunity to work with someone I respected on a project that aligned with my own interests was too good to pass up.

ReportReady is an effective and efficient platform with which to manage compliance, both broadly and with focus. It allows provider institutions of all sizes to optimise their capabilities without over-investing. It removes the complexity and constraints that normally impact upon regulatory compliance, and reduces the need for frantic just-in-time audit preparation and for outsourcing what are mostly mundane tasks to consultants.

Whether you are a small vocational provider with two courses on scope, fewer than 25 staff and under 250 students, or an ASX listed conglomerate with multiple institutions, 500 staff and over 10,000 students, ReportReady will deliver the same quality outputs. It aligns to your provider institution’s profile and responds accordingly.

If you are missing critical evidence, it will tell you.

• If your evidence is weak, it will tell you.
• If you have misunderstood your obligations, it will tell you.
• AND it will show you how to address these issues.
• Not just a fix, but full enhancement.

Real solutions in real time.

Provider institutions are able to review a single standard or rule at any time, or undertake a full annual review. This capability ensures ongoing self-assurance.

But wait, there is more. You may not get a free set of steak knives, but you will have detailed, fully analysed reports for tabling with various committees and governance bodies, including recommendations.

And this is what I love most:

• Complete governance oversight.
• Efficiency and effectiveness.
• Evidence informed decision making.
• Labour efficiency.
• Cost savings.
• Labour capital and monetary capital available for strategic business activities such as campus refits, geographic expansion, new courses, acquisitions and more.

It has been thrilling to work with Alan Manly and his CampusQ team. But then, it’s always a delight to work with professionals, people with integrity, people at the top of their field.

Eve Ollerenshaw
www.ollerenshawconsultancy.com