Michelle Canny
Executive Director, MinterEllison Consulting, Brisbane
I am a tertiary education specialist with over 20 years-experience in senior executive and management roles in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. Working closely with clients, I use a multi-disciplinary approach and my background in public policy, economics and finance to provide innovative and robust insights.

I provide strategic regulatory advice based on my expertise and technical knowledge of the tertiary education sector. This includes leading branches, teams and projects to provide trusted advice on complex issues ranging from funding and research applications, pathways evaluations, training plans, policy issues and business cases.

Prior to joining MinterEllison's Education Consulting team, Wells Advisory, I was the Director Policy and Performance Reporting at Construction Skills Queensland and held roles as Senior Advisor to the Victorian Education Minister, senior policy roles in the Victorian Department of Education (including as Acting Director Skills Policy & Strategy), with a focus on pathways, higher education and vocational education and training.

I have worked with the most senior levels of government and with a range of universities and TAFE institutes in Victoria, NSW and Queensland.

Career highlights

  • Working with clients to provide specialist regulatory advice on sector topical issues such student performance benchmarking, enrolment compliance and student wellbeing and safety through a governance and regulation lens.
  • Leading multi-disciplinary teams (governance, accounting, policy and statistics) to evaluate outcomes and viability risks in large government funded education and training programs.
  • Developing evaluation frameworks for a range of pathways programs between vocational education and training providers and universities, and similarly leading evaluations for pathways programs.
  • Assisting a range of university, TAFE and private providers to develop multi-year strategic and business plans.
  • Undertaking corporate and academic governance reviews for self-accrediting and non-self-accrediting providers, inclusive of recommendations to improve alignment with legislation and regulation.
  • Leading the formation and delivery of comprehensive business cases, including resolution of policy frameworks, student load projections, economic and social factors, financial, risk, construction design and development, and budget funding flows, for high profile, budget-funded, infrastructure projects for a range of TAFE Institutes.
  • Developing methodology and delivering detailed educational needs analysis both universities and TAFE institutes.
  • Leading the policy function at a not-for-profit industry skills training body, including development of the annual training plan, allocating ~$44M for VET and industry support programs; representing Queensland in training package development; and leading the development of both Commonwealth and Queensland government policy response submissions.

Our consulting services are provided (directly and indirectly) by MinterEllison Consulting (ABN 50 017 469 292) and MinterEllison Consulting Pty Ltd (ABN 50 077 613 828), both of which are part of the MinterEllison Group. Our consulting services do not constitute legal services nor legal advice and are not provided by Australian legal practitioners acting in that capacity. The laws and regulations which govern the provision of legal services in the relevant jurisdiction do not apply to the provision of non-legal services.