My firm, Academies Australasia Group Limited, deliver tertiary education and training and offer more than 180 qualifications across Australia and Singapore. They have been operating for over 112 years, and although I have never heard of them, they seem to deliver quality education to students. They operate 18 colleges under different names with each college having its own licence to operate as an educational institution.
Colleges
Academy of English Pty Ltd – Sydney
Australian International High School (Senior High School) – Sydney
Academies Australasia Institute Pty Ltd – Sydney, Armidale, Melbourne, Perth
Academies Australasia Polytechnic Pty Ltd – Sydney, Melbourne
Australian College of Technology Pty Ltd – Sydney
Benchmark College – Sydney
Clarendon Business College Pty Ltd – Sydney
College of Sports & Fitness – Sydney, Perth
Supreme Business College Pty Ltd – Sydney
RuralBiz Training – Dubbo (Armidale?? It states Armidale rather than Dubbo but a google search revealed Dubbo)
Discover English Pty Ltd – Melbourne
Skills Training Australia – Melbourne
Spectra Training Australia – Melbourne
Vostro Institute of Training Pty Ltd – Melbourne
Academies Australasia Hair & Beauty Pty Ltd – Brisbane, Gold Coast
Print Training Australia – Adelaide
Language Links – Perth
Academies Australasia College Pte Ltd – Singapore
While reading the latest annual report for 2023, it was apparent that the COVID19 rules and restrictions are still affecting the education sector. For example, the loss of revenue due to refunds to international students affected the firm’s profitability substantially. Visa rejections have played a significant part in the profitability of Academies Australasia. It seems confusion about students’ abilities to apply for courses were caused by dividing information being provided to these students by the Department of Home Affairs (DHA). The initial statement by the Chairman and the Group Managing Director and CEO was quite scathing of the Federal Government’s promises to correct the loopholes which they knew existed, and promised to fix, but to date have not corrected anything.
Adjustments were made in the financial statements to recognise the impacts of leasing a new premises before approval to conduct classes was given, and also the writing down of leasehold improvements after vacating a premises in Brisbane. These factors along with the Government adjustments made a big difference to the firm’s profitability and they in fact made a loss for the financial year which resulted in no dividends being paid to equity investors.
The board is still optimistic for the future, with the approval being given for Bachelor of Business (Analytics) to be offered in the future to increase the number of Bachelor degrees to 5. Academies Australasia College (AAC) in Singapore also offers two Honours degrees. Academies Australasia is waiting on the approval to be given for a Master’s in Information Technology and a Bachelor of Information Technology to further increase its student numbers and profitability.
I noticed the lack of strategic information in the form of other firms which have pages of insignificant information. They have been straight forward with the position of the company and directly moved on to the financial reports. There is still a lot to examine though I am sure the main points have been covered in the opening statements.
The number of issued shares increased in the 2023 financial year due to an Employee Incentive Plan being implemented. This increased share capital which decreased the loss the firm could have made during the financial year.
While studying the firm’s Balance Sheet it occurred to me there was no building or land assets, only plant and equipment and right of use assets. This indicates that the firm leases all of it’s premises. Under Current and Non-Current Liabilities there is also no debt, only lease liabilities so that confirms the leasing of its premises.
I am confident I have been given a firm I will be able to thoroughly investigate and learn about its financial position.
The pressures faced by the education sector seem to be carried over from the COVID19 pandemic with teacher shortages and equity constraints amongst the issue still at hand. An article by Education Matters Magazine highlights this Australian education urgently needs practical reform.
An interesting article published by Parliament of Australia highlights the decline in international enrolments due to border lockdowns has negatively affected the tertiary education sector Tertiary Education and COVID19 Recovery. Academies Australasia do not offer online enrolments (as far as I can see) which would affect their enrolment numbers.
Academies Australasia now has the opportunity to gain higher international student numbers after the government announced new requirements for student visas which has taken away the confusion which led to the large amount of refunds issued in the last financial year. See the article Migration strategy at a glance.pdf, key action 3 explains the new integrity measures the Department of Home Affairs will undertake from 23 March 2024.
I have been unable to find the number of students enrolled at any of Academies Australasia’s Colleges or its staff numbers. This is despite searching through the ACARA and NCVER websites and conducting numerous other searches. It would be interesting to learn how student numbers have affected their profit margin over the last few years.
Its interesting how my firm has videos advertising their courses on their website, but I was unable to find any with Google searches. The courses offered in Armidale relate to Agriculture – I have the video link for this course here: Academies Australasia – Agriculture.
Studiosity – I found the feedback given from Studiosity very helpful. It is sometimes hard to be critical with our own writing and I was given useful feedback. It was also handy to know my spelling and grammar was correct. I haven’t used this platform before but if I have time with future assessments, I will be using them again.
References
Education Matters Magazine. (2023). Education Minister: Australian education urgently needs practical reform. https://www.educationmattersmag.com.au/education-minister-australian-education-urgently-needs-practical-reform
Parliament of Australia. (2022). Tertiary education and COVID-19 recovery. https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BriefingBook47p/TertiaryEducationCOVID19Recovery
Australian Government Department of Home Affairs. (2023). Migration Strategy – At a Glance. https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/programs-subsite/migration-strategy/Documents/migration-strategy-at-a-glance.pdf
Academies Australasia. (2024). Welcome Message from Group Managing Director. https://academies.edu.au/about-us/welcome
Video: Agriculture VET Courses. (2024). https://youtu.be/sTpQS-Fo3_E?si=WA3DrLVHKgsqi6e71
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