Wells Advisory
in Australia

In Australia, Wells Advisory partners with clients across the higher education sector, providing advice, guidance and support on strategy, regulation and operations in order to achieve successful outcomes.

Services we provide

For clients in Australia, or investing into Australia, our team combines senior local consultants with highly experienced Principal Advisors drawn from the sector. We have a collective experience and track record in assisting universities and institutes worldwide to find solutions to some of their most challenging problems. A selection of our global service offering is set out below.

Corporate advisory

We provide M & A and brokerage advice for investment in higher education providers in Australia.

Working on either side of transactions we provide specialist regulatory, strategic and commercial advice and utilise our wide international network to bring motivated investors, buyers and sellers together and then facilitating progress to successful outcomes. We have a deep understanding of the regulatory scope and standing of registered providers, always a key aspect of a higher education transaction. We also understand the business of higher education and can therefore advise on strategy and commercial aspects of the transaction.

Recently, we acted for the China Education Group in arranging a financial and strategic partnership with Richmond the American University in London and we are working with clients on similar opportunities in the UK higher education sector. We also acted for interested parties in the Laureate Australia & NZ transaction.
Research commercialisation

We help institutions and researchers to identify and objectively assess the commercial potential of their ideas and expertise, framing optimal paths to market and ensuring fair value from commercialisation deals. We have expertise across investment and development life-cycles, from early-stage identification through to commercial life-cycle management.

At Wells Advisory, we believe external strategic advice can help accelerate research commercialisation and innovation at key development milestones, allowing research leaders to determine which ideas to support without missing high-potential disruptors.

Through the combined strategy and management experience of our consulting team and research expertise of our Principal Advisors, we offer access to objective market-linked insights and value assessments similar to those used by investors and private equity firms. Early-stage insight can support institutional and researcher decision-making on collaborations, spin-outs, or further development, putting researchers on a more level footing in commercial negotiations.
Regulatory advice, review and audit (TEQSA)

We assist new and established higher education providers and universities in negotiating successful outcomes within the complex regulatory requirements in Australia.

Our team has advised a wide range of clients on most aspects of the Australian regulatory framework (TEQSA, CRICOS, FEE-HELP), including establishing a new higher education provider, re-registration, course accreditation, risk assessment and data reporting, independent governance, partnership reviews, conditions reporting, compliance auditing and board recruitment.

Our team’s collective experience across this area, including as former regulators, is second to none. We bring practical and expert advice and support. We have a long track record of helping our clients achieve successful regulatory outcomes and strong compliance positions, including new registrations, re-registrations and self-accrediting authority.
Governance and leadership

We have in depth understanding and appreciation of the governance structures required to achieve success at a strategic level as well as fulfilling legal and regulatory compliance.

We are able to offer corporate and academic governance reviews, that consider governance structures, terms of reference, Board and Committee effectiveness and culture, delegations and reporting frameworks as well as member profile and and engagement. If the committee structure isn’t working well, the Board of Directors / Council requires strategic alignment or purposeful team building.

We are able to offer leadership review and advice on restructuring, succession planning, and help with the need for achieving cost reduction across the activities of the senior team. We also can provide leadership mentoring and support to tackle issues at an individual or team level. This may involve providing an external review of strategic programmes to achieve change, or providing oversight at a program board level to help drive results.
Strategy and planning

Our starting point as a leading sector specialist is that we understand the unique and fast evolving context that is higher education and research. We understand the academic interface and the commercial realities. Working at the cutting edge, we apply this understanding to create strategy and execution capability.

In the current environment, it is critical that universities and institutes have a clear understanding of their mission, their organisational capability and their markets. We help our clients understand their current position, evolving market structures, map future options, select and build balanced strategies and shared consensus. Good strategy fails without execution capability. We also work with our clients to lift and speed up execution. Our services include strategic planning, financial modelling & evaluation, organisational assessment, market structural analysis and business plans. We work at whole of institution, portfolio and school level.