Insights & frameworks
Education M&A
Buying or merging an educational institution is not buying a company. The dimension financial due diligence does not measure: identity, culture, educational model and governance (macro), and their translation into programmes and teams (meso).
Layers this area activates
Every educational transformation plays out in three layers at once. The layers are the same in any institution; their content and milestones change depending on whether it is a university, a school or a school network.
macro
Strategy, governance and institutional model
Institutional strategy, governance, educational model and AI policy. What the rectorate and board decide.
Typical milestones
Strategic plan · institutional graduate profile · assessment framework · AI strategy · evidence system
Purpose, identity and educational model of the school; governance between ownership, leadership and school board.
Typical milestones
School educational project · student exit profile · improvement plan · pedagogical leadership model
Shared educational framework of the network and governance between ownership, central team and school heads. The key decision: what is common and what remains each school's autonomy.
Typical milestones
Network educational framework · shared/local model · common exit profile · network dashboard
meso
Curriculum, programmes and academic organisation
Faculties, degrees and curricula. Where the model is translated into coherent programmes.
Typical milestones
Degree redesign · graduate profile per programme · cross-department coordination · accreditation dossier
Stages, cycles and teaching teams; organisation of time, space and progression across years.
Typical milestones
Stage planning · timetables and groupings · vertical coordination · teacher professional development
Coherence across schools: stages, planning, assessment criteria and teacher development aligned without uniformity.
Typical milestones
Comparable planning across schools · cross-school teacher communities · network training plan · practice transfer
micro
Learning experiences, assessment and classroom
Courses, learning experiences and assessment with the student. What is lived every week.
Typical milestones
Course guide · challenges and projects · rubrics and evidence · feedback · AI use in class
Classroom, tutoring and relationship with families. Where the model becomes visible every day.
Typical milestones
Units and projects · formative assessment · individual follow-up · communication with families
Each school's classroom, with its local context. The network provides framework and resources; each school provides the classroom translation.
Typical milestones
Context-adapted units · common assessment criteria · comparable student follow-up · families recognising the same purpose
● central layer · ○ secondary layer
Articles 3
A new educational reality demands a new M&A paradigm
Education M&A still runs on the playbook of any other industry: EBITDA multiples, synergies, financial due diligence. But the asset being bought — an educational project — is mutating. What academic due diligence is, why demographics and AI break the classic playbook, and how to buy learning architectures instead of cash flows.
August 4, 2026
Buying an educational institution is not buying a company
In an education deal, the real asset is not on the balance sheet: it is a community of trust, a faculty and a project. The systemic challenges of buying and selling educational institutions, a 4-point protocol to protect value — and why most of the value is won or lost after signing.
August 3, 2026
Demographics and AI: the two forces that will redraw the map of educational institutions
Falling birth rates move through the education system with the precision of a clock, while AI erodes the traditional value proposition at the same time. The four-position map: buy, be bought, transform or close. What this means for anyone leading, buying or selling an educational institution.
August 2, 2026
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