As a Senior Lecturer in Finance at Massey University, one of New Zealand’s leading tertiary institutions, my role as an educator is to prepare students to thrive in a rapidly evolving, data-driven world.
I have always believed that analytics education must strike a balance between technical capability and critical thinking, as well as ethical awareness and business fluency.
Over the years, I’ve developed a deep interest in evidence-driven strategic intelligence – understanding how data, when used responsibly, can transform decision-making across industries. As AI becomes increasingly embedded in business operations, the way we teach analytics must evolve accordingly. This evolution is essential to developing a workforce that can design, deploy and manage intelligent systems with both confidence and integrity.
Integrating SAS® Viya® into the learning experience
At Massey University, our business analytics programs aim to provide students with firsthand experience of the tools and technologies they will encounter in the workforce. To achieve this, I’ve integrated SAS Viya as a core platform within both our Bachelor’s and Master’s programs. The emphasis is on teaching students not just about technical skills, but also about analytics fluency – so that students can seamlessly move between data science logic, business context, and ethical impact.
SAS Viya provides a cloud-native, scalable and enterprise-ready environment where students can build, deploy, and interpret analytics solutions end-to-end. It allows them to experience the full analytics life cycle – from data preparation to model deployment and interpretation – within a single, professional-grade platform.
Then we work together to apply what they learn to real-world use cases they may encounter in their professional careers. This can include applying analytics to personalising offers for retailers, using analytics for forecasting, risk analysis and more.
The results: Future-ready analytics talent
This shift has been personally rewarding for three reasons. Firstly, students in the courses become empowered to think like designers of intelligent systems – not just users of statistical models. The result is that they are graduating with an understanding of the entire analytics life cycle.
Secondly, it means that graduates are well-placed to bridge the gap between technical complexity and business clarity – a key skill that can take graduates into boardrooms during their career.
Finally, it is future-proofing graduates not just for the workforce of today, but for years to come. The future belongs to analytics translators and SAS Viya helps our students become exactly that: capable, adaptive and future-ready.
