Start with fairness and quality: Studiosity's CSR approach

This is Jack's foreword from Studiosity's 2020 Corporate Social Responsibility policy document.

When I founded Studiosity 15 years ago, I began with the premise that every student deserves access to the highest quality learning support, regardless of their social, geographic or personal circumstances. It was a simple matter of fairness that informed our project, and we first pursued our goal by developing a pioneering approach to delivering homework support to high school students via Australia’s public libraries.¹

A decade-and-a-half later, our mission remains firmly focused on equity of access to 24/7 academic literacy and study support. We believe it is possible to do this most efficiently and effectively by bringing all stakeholders on this journey - the students we assist every day, the universities, polytechnics, TAFEs and schools where they study and that are our partners, our subject specialists and our own staff and their families.

Why have we taken this approach? For the simple reason that we believe it is the right and most ethical thing to do. Education, like health, is an area that is too important in terms of the lives that it impacts, for any of us to cut corners. If we are seeking to have a deep, long-term impact on students’ life chances, and to assist the institutions they attend to enhance their student experience, then we must start from a premise of “quality first.”

“Quality” for Studiosity is inextricably tied to the relationships we seek to build, both internally and externally. When we think of how the “network effect” works, every one of our dozens of employees and hundreds of subject specialists has scores of relationships outside of our organisation.

If we are able to provide the most supportive, ethical, and cooperative culture in our workplace, then some of that will undoubtedly filter through thousands of interconnected relationships.

In the pages of our Corporate Social Responsibility document, you won’t read about things like our company’s recycling program, our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint, cut down on plastic in the office or provide all our employees with Keep Cups for their morning coffee. We do all of those things, and much more, but we don’t make a big deal about them. In our view, they’re basic hygiene factors that every organisation should be undertaking.

I am periodically asked why, if we care so deeply about our social mission at Studiosity, we are not a not-for-profit. It is a question that assumes there is an inherent conflict of interest between profit and ethics. I disagree. There are myriad stories of businesses, not-for-profits, and governments behaving ethically and behaving badly. The determining factor, in my view, is organisational culture. At the end of the day, every organisation needs to be economically sustainable to survive.

I can also state categorically that, had we gone down the non-profit path, we would be on a never-ending journey to source grant funds to run homework programs, and we would likely still be having a relatively small impact in a handful of public libraries. By pursuing the path we have chosen, we have sought to maximise our reach to students, and thus maximise the good we can provide to society.

If there are ways we can improve or expand our internal and external initiatives to augment Studiosity’s positive impact on the world, then we want to know about them. We work hard to be open to constructive feedback, as individuals and as an organisation. It is the only way to improve, and we hope you can help us improve by contributing, in your own way, to our learning journey.

¹ Some people find it surprising to learn that public libraries are the largest member-based organisations in Australia, are the favourite destination for school students after school, and are the most trusted service delivered by local government.

Jack Goodman is Founder and Chair of Studiosity