Growth without dilution
New programmes, larger cohorts and new campuses have to scale without eroding quality or culture.
We go beyond the obvious.
One trusted partner for your entire university.
Book a diagnostic callThe context
Leaders face more decisions, with less margin for error.
Universities are growing, scrutinised and measured as never before. The answers usually exist inside the institution. They are rarely in one place.
Rising accountability
Regulators, rankings, boards and families expect evidence, not intent, behind every policy.
Data-rich, insight-poor
Admissions, academic and finance systems hold the answers, but rarely talk to each other.
Functions in silos
A fix in one office often creates a problem in another. Few advisors see the whole institution.
Everything is connected. A change in admissions moves finance, academics and student life, which is why we work across the whole institution.
Problems we solve
The questions we help university leaders answer.
From administrative to academic. Each question below has a measurable answer, and each answer touches more than one office.
Admissions
Is our selection process actually predicting who will succeed here?
Scholarships
Is our aid budget buying access, yield, or neither?
Academic Affairs
Why are students graduating late, and which ones are at risk this semester?
Faculty Affairs
Are teaching loads fair, and consistent with our research ambitions?
Campus Operations
Do we need new classrooms, or a better timetable?
Financial Management
What will a new programme or campus really cost over seven years?
Our approach
First principles: analyse, recommend, implement.
We start from what the institution is trying to achieve, then rebuild the answer from there. Implementation is there when you need it, not bolted on.
Analyse
Strip the problem to its fundamentals. Gather data and stakeholder voice, and isolate the root cause rather than the symptom.
OutputDiagnostic with evidence
Recommend
Build options from the ground up, not from what other universities happen to do. Cost them, sequence them and make trade-offs explicit.
OutputRecommendation and roadmap
Implement
If required, work alongside your teams: policy drafts, process redesign, tools, automation and training, with outcomes tracked.
OutputChange embedded and measured
How we deliver
Six capabilities, and the outcomes they drive.
The same functional skills apply to every office in the university. What changes is the problem they are pointed at.
Strategy
- Multi-year plans
- Portfolio design
- Rankings strategy
Clear priorities, a funded plan and a stronger position
Problem Solving
- Issue trees
- Root-cause analysis
- Trade-off options
Root causes fixed, not symptoms managed
Data Analytics
- KPI frameworks
- Dashboards
- Cohort models
Decisions on evidence, with early warning on risk
Process Improvement
- Process maps
- SOPs & protocols
- Turnaround targets
Faster turnaround and one version of the truth
Policy Review
- Policy audits
- Benchmarks
- Draft policies
Fair, consistent policies that work in practice
AI Agentic Automation
- Use-case mapping
- Agentic workflows
- Live integrations
Routine work automated; people freed for judgement
FoundationFirst principles: analyse, recommend, implement with you
Practice areas
One partner, across the whole institution.
Ten practice areas, from a student’s first enquiry to the numbers that keep the campus running.
Students From first enquiry to graduation outcomes
Admissions
- Selection criteria & rubrics
- Aptitude tests & interviews
- Funnel & yield analytics
Outreach
- School & counsellor engagement
- Data-driven conversion
- Parent & student workshops
Scholarships
- Affordability rubrics
- Merit-cum-need scholarships
- Aid budget modelling
Student Affairs
- Student experience & move-in
- Student council & grievances
- Conduct & discipline policy
Well-being
- Mental-health protocols
- Counselling capacity & access
- Early warning & referral
Graduation Outcomes
- Placement readiness & tracking
- Higher-education pathways
- Outcome data for rankings
Academics & institution The systems behind the student experience
Academic Affairs
- Academic policy & process
- Course management
- Graduation trajectories & late graduates
- Student performance monitoring
Faculty Affairs
- Faculty policy & handbook
- Teaching load norms
- Tenure & promotion requirements
- Faculty governance
Campus Operations
- Classroom scheduling & utilisation
- Technology & AI interventions
- Enrolment & records protocols
- Service & process design
Financial Management
- Financial projections & modelling
- Programme & campus business cases
- Fee collection & cost benchmarks
- Endowment & non-tuition income
Why Fourth Decimal
What makes us different.
Advice is easy to find. Advice that has been tested inside a university, and stays for delivery, is not.
- 01
Practitioners first
We have run admissions, financial aid and operations inside a university, so recommendations arrive ready to work.
- 02
Whole-institution view
From administrative to academic, so a fix in one office does not create a problem in another.
- 03
First-principles thinking
Solutions rebuilt from purpose, not copied from benchmarks that suit someone else.
- 04
Evidence over opinion
Data analytics and Chartered Accountant-grade financial rigour behind every recommendation.
- 05
AI where it earns its place
Agentic automation for routine work, with your people approving every decision that matters.
- 06
We stay for delivery
Implementation alongside your teams when you need it. The person who scopes the work does it.
Case studies
Six problems solved, one for each capability.
Each case starts with a question an institution could not answer cleanly, and ends with a number it can now stand behind.
Strategy | Campus Operations | Ashoka University
More from existing classrooms, without disruption
Same rooms, more use
Classroom utilisation maximised without disrupting academic operations
The challengeFaculty preferences shaped the timetable: classes thinned out on Mondays and Fridays, and rooms were often mismatched to class sizes.
What we did
- Studied utilisation patterns across a typical teaching week
- Identified mismatches between room size and class strength
- Combined policy and process changes to lift utilisation
Problem Solving | Academic Affairs | Ashoka University
Diagnosing a gradual decline in graduation rates
4 levers
Early detection, minimum credits, counselling and parent intervention
The challengeGraduation rates had been slipping, and the pandemic’s effect on learning made the cause hard to read.
What we did
- Studied the factors behind the decline, normalised for pandemic-era learning loss
- Recommended early detection of students drifting from their academic trajectory
- Set minimum credits per year, with academic counselling and case-by-case parent intervention
Data Analytics | Chairman’s Office | Ashoka University
From 240+ KPIs to a Top 40 dashboard for the Board
240+ → 40
KPIs distilled into a Board dashboard
The challengeLeadership and the Board needed one periodic, consistent view of performance across a growing university.
What we did
- Worked with 20+ departments to define 240+ KPIs for periodic monitoring
- Prioritised them into a ‘Top 40’ dashboard
- Gave senior leadership and the Board of Management one consistent view
Process Improvement | Registrar’s Office | Ashoka University
One enrolment number, the same in every report
5 departments
On one real-time enrolment protocol
The challengeEnrolment figures were updated differently across departments, so university reports did not always agree.
What we did
- Mapped how five departments recorded and updated enrolment
- Standardised one protocol for real-time updates
- Created a single source of truth for university-wide reporting
Policy Review | Finance | Ashoka University
Fee defaults cut from 8% to under 1% a semester
8% → <1%
Fee default rate per semester
The challengeAbout 8% of fees fell into default every semester, putting pressure on cash flow and the P&L.
What we did
- Analysed the collection cycle and defaults semester by semester
- Tightened the fee-collection process and follow-up across the offices involved
- Built cost benchmarks per student, per square foot and per department for annual budgeting
AI Agentic Automation | Technology | Blue Canvas Education
One system: website, LMS and ERP, run by agents
8 tools → 1
Connected system, kept current by agents in real time
The challengeA growing education practice ran on separate tools for scheduling, classes, files, assessments and invoicing, with manual updates between them.
What we did
- Built the website and an online assessment platform, with results sent by email automatically
- Built an LMS and control panel that tracks every student’s stage, sessions and assignments
- Connected Google Classroom, Drive, Calendar, Forms, Gmail, Zoom, Asana and invoicing, so agents update records in real time with human approval
Working together
Four ways to engage, each one a decimal deeper.
Each step goes further into the institution: from perspective, to diagnosis, to delivery, to change embedded alongside your team. Durations are indicative and scoped with you.
First decimal
Advisory retainer
Ongoing
Regular access for leadership on decisions as they arise.
Second decimal
Diagnostic
4–6 weeks
One defined problem taken to root cause, with a clear recommendation.
Third decimal
Project
2–4 months
Analyse, recommend and implement across a defined scope.
Fourth decimal
Implementation partner
3–12 months
Embedded with your team to deliver change and track results.
Who we are
Led by a practitioner who has run these functions.
Vineet SabharwalFounder & Principal · Chartered Accountant
24 years across consulting, media and higher education, 12 of them in higher education. Problem solving and strategy from McKinsey & Company; finance, M&A and private equity from HT Media; and senior leadership at Ashoka University, heading Outreach, Admissions & Financial Aid and then Special Projects under the Pro Vice Chancellor, working with the Vice Chancellor’s and Chairman’s offices.
24
Years of experience
12
Years in higher education
4,000+
Students met
2024 – now
Education advisory
Strategy and operations advice to education institutions; student mentoring.
2016 – 2024
Ashoka University
Head of Outreach, Admissions & Financial Aid; Head of Special Projects, Pro VC Office.
2008 – 2015
HT Media
Private equity, financial strategy, M&A; helped build Bridge School of Management.
2002 – 2008
McKinsey & Company
Business Analyst to Team Lead, India Knowledge Centre; led a team of 30.
Start a conversation
Let’s find the fourth decimal in your institution.
Tell us the question your institution cannot answer cleanly yet. A first call is a conversation, not a pitch.