Higher Education Consultancy & Advisory
I provide strategic consultancy and advisory services to businesses and consultancies engaging with UK universities. My expertise includes:
Developing improved business alignment (i.e. academic strategy) with the Higher Education sector.
Supporting product development tailored to university requirements.
Enhancing marketing strategies and partnership-building efforts for B2B engagement with Higher Education.
Offering insights into university operations and strategy for external stakeholders.
Providing specialist guidance on internationalisation, including transnational education (TNE), partnership development, and international student recruitment.
Acting as a critical friend to non-academic consultants working within Higher Education.
What My Clients Say
“Abigail’s work at Pagoda was nothing short of transformational. She supported me directly in an advisory role in leading the organisation, coached members of our team, developed an academic strategy and contributed to programme design…Abigail is an exemplary leader, coach and advocate for diversity. Her legacy of fostering growth, innovation and inclusivity will continue to have a profound impact on the sector for years to come.” — Jamie Bettles, Founder Pagoda Projects.
“I first had the pleasure of working with Abigail during one of our offline events which are focused to support female international students to grow in the UK.
She later supported both the company and me directly in an advisory role during a crucial phase of our organisation’s transition, bringing wisdom and her distinctive academic and professional perspective to a diverse range of new initiatives, including internationalisation, TNE, and the use of AI in international student recruitment.
Abigail is a warm, approachable, knowledgeable, and visionary leader. We had monthly consultancy meetings, and each session she led was meticulously prepared, well-organised, purposeful, and genuinely helpful. Working with Abigail isn’t just consultancy; it’s an opportunity to see complex challenges clarified with focus, care, and an inspiring sense of possibility.” — Christina Ke, UK Managing Director, UOffer Global.
“I first had the pleasure of working with Abigail when she was the Deputy Head of the School of Languages and Associate Head (Marketing and Recruitment) at the University of Salford and I had a central marketing and student recruitment role, back in 2005. From the very beginning, I found Abigail to be approachable, pragmatic, committed and incredibly knowledgeable. Fast forward 20 years and we now work alongside each other in consultancy and coaching projects at Hayhurst & Co. We recently conducted a prospective international student journey mapping project for a client where Abigail was our specialist consultant and critical friend to ensure that our recommendations were robust as well as being actionable from an academic perspective. During this project Abigail continued to share her knowledge and gave us additional insight and perspective to strengthen the impact of the project. As always, she was reliable, hardworking and a really positive energy. I’m delighted that she is an Associate at Hayhurst & Co, and I look forward to doing more work with her.” — Vicky Hayhurst, CEO and Founder, Hayhurst & Co.