Education

Our services to the education sector range from audit to divestment, strategic advice at Board level to negotiating public/private partnerships.  Our clients include a diverse range of HEIs, school groups, language colleges and training providers as well as government agencies and NDPBs.  Our work crosses both private and public sectors and runs from nursery to post graduate and from the public sector through registered charities and to private providers.

One of our main steams is higher education.  This sector is facing new challenges as a result of both Browne and the CSR – the funding environment is a moving feast.  The agenda around data quality has not completely gone away; the revised Financial Memorandum has focused minds – the priority for many is however balancing budgets.  The shift in fees is going to put pressure on quality of delivery and expectations of students.  Data capture, and validation, of career routes and employability will become increasingly important.  The next few years are going to see modest changes, at least from the outside.  What each HEI does in the next five years will be defining.

With 20 years of experience in education our team, led by James Aston, provides a full offering of audit and advisory services and contributes to the sector through participation in sector conferences and publications including our own HEI bulletins which are published throughout the year.

We provide a wide range of financial and procurement advisory services across the education sector.  We have advised on successful projects with capital values ranging from £5million to over £100million, and have the strength and depth to support our clients at all project stages from initial feasibility through to deal close and mobilisation.

Our core services in education include:

• External audit
• Internal audit
• Data audit
• Financial viability reviews
• Tax planning and compliance, including group restructuring and international tax
• Due diligence, especially in connection with merger discussions
• Employee taxes and social security advice
• Risk advisory services, including forensics investigations
• Information Technology strategy, appraisal and testing
• e-Business solutions
• Governor training
• Business case development
• Procurement advisory
• Financial modelling
• Debt advisory
• Governance reviews

Clients also have access to regular information on matters of interest in the sector including sector bulletins and seminar programmes.