HUMANE
SEMINAR
Universiteit van
Amsterdam
Friday 15 to
Saturday 16 May 1998
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On 15-16 May the University of
Amsterdam hosted a HUMANE seminar on the subject of “Management of
Change”. The main aim of the seminar
was to study ways in which European Universities address change; how they
recognize the need for change, ways in which they undertake and manage a
process of change and finally how they measure the results.
Twenty-five Secretary-Generals
from universities in ten European countries participated in the seminar and
five speakers from four different countries presented their universities’
experience in the management of change.
The presentation of the Polytechnic
University of Catalunya (Spain) focused on how to deal with change
through strategic management. After a
methodological introduction, the speaker analyzed the theoretical tools used by
the University to manage strategic planning and change;
the University of Cardiff (UK)
introduced its own experience of change consisting of closing and creating
departments in order to improve its position as a research university on a
national scale;
the Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium)
addressed the issue of change in relation to its new Information Technology
system, basing its presentation on Kotler’s theory. According to this theory, in order to achieve change an
organization must create a sense of urgency, establish a strong coalition, have
a long-term vision, remove the obstacles to vision, communicate the changes,
plan for short-time wins and anchor change in the corporate culture;
the University of Wolverhampton
(UK) stressed the importance of institutional efficiency and effectiveness and
how the University had to undertake a major process of change in order to offer
outstanding flexibility and accessibility to students; finally
the presentation of the University
of Haute Bretagne (France) focused on the introduction of the euro as a
source of change and how universities must approach the new currency.
After every presentation,
participants had time to discuss and compare/exchange their views, and this led
to lively debate. The seminar also allowed for extensive networking among the
members and familiarization with the aims of HUMANE and its potential for
future development.
The University had arranged an
interesting social programme for Saturday evening: this allowed the
participants to socialize while discovering the beauties of Amsterdam on a
canal boat or while enjoying van Gogh’s paintings.
Dr. Francesc Sola i Busquets, Universitat
Politécnica de Catalunya (ES)
1. UPC Background records.
2. Why a Strategic Plan?
3. SWOT analysis.
4. Action Plan: quality as an end.
5. The Management of Change.
6. Links between planning and allocation of
resources: Contract-Programme.
7. "Learned lessons".
From the seventies to the present time the
environment of the university and of higher education in general has undergone
some highly significant changes: changes of a demographic and financial nature,
changes in social demands, changes in legitimacy and greater national and
international competitiveness, amongst others. These changes obviously have a
direct effect on the management, organisation and administration systems of
higher education institutions, and on the definition and implementation of
government policies on universities. Current systems of management,
organisation and administration of universities have therefore often become
less effective and operative. Current models of university organisation and
administration were conceived to respond to a far simpler and more stable
environment than the one that seems to prevail in today's socially and
economically advanced societies. The milieu requires strategic management of
higher education institutions and quality and adaptation of university
services. It is therefore essential to determine objectives, make them known to
society and excel more and more in the quality and adaptation of the university
service.
To face up to the challenge involved by this
new social and economic environment and attempt to supply appropriate answers
to it, some public institutions have been promoting particular endeavours over
the last few years: processes of change are being created, improvements in
quality and new management, administration and organisation systems that seek
to increase organisations' levels of effectiveness and efficiency and the
adaptation and quality of services. The university has not been unaware of
these initiatives, though in the Spanish case there have only been some
praiseworthy but still timid and experimental projects. Some examples of these
endeavours worthy of mention are the processes for institutional assessment,
quality management and improvement of quality and the strategic planning of
university institutions.
This paper aims to analyse how feasible the
application of strategic management and planning systems is in higher education
institutions, and its interrelation with a structure of university quality
management put at society's service. An at tempt is made to determine the
constraints, benefits and requisites of the practical application of these
systems of strategic management by analysing the experience of the Universitat
Politecnica de Catalunya (U PC, Barcelona, Spain), and the phases of design,
implementation and assessment of the strategic planning process.
To carry out this analysis the approach used is
an in-depth study of the experience of strategic planning and quality
management at the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya. From the analysis of
this case we at tempt to draw conclusions of interest as regards the
feasibility of the application of management systems and strategic planning in
universities, their determining factors, requirements and possible benefits.
The
Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya has over the last four years undertaken a
comprehensive experiment in the strategic planning of the institution. There
has thus been institutional planning, planning of the University's different
sectorial policies (teaching, research, services, staff, international
relationships, infrastructures, and so on) and there is at the present time a
process under way for the strategic planning of the University's teaching,
research and service units, from the basis of an integrated perspective of the
activities of these units and starting from their own proposal. The budgetary
process is also being linked up with the creation and application of each of
the strategic plans of the University's structural units.
UPC
has furthermore been fully integrated in the institutional planning processes
promoted by the Council of Universities and the Catalan Agency for the Quality
of the University System, processes that supply feedback for the process of
planning the teaching, research and service units of the University, and which
form the University's quality system along with the execution stages of these
plans.
The
process culminated in 1997 with the signing of a contract- programme for the
1997-2000 period by the Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya and the Regional
Government of Catalonia that determines, according to the University's
strategic planning, U PC's objectives for this period in its spheres of work,
its assessment system and its connection with ordinary University financing. It
is, once again, a completely novel experiment in the Spanish field. This
agreement provides for making these general objectives material through the
different structural units of U PC and its own planning for this period.
After four years, the Universitat Politecnica
de Catalunya has plan at an institutionallevel that is developed in different
sectorial plans and through the planning of its units (in 1998 over 50% of
these are intended to be completed). This plan is supported by an assessment
process and is fully integrated with the processes of resource assignment.
These are the results.
Some
initial conclusions from the experience should be pointed out. Strategic
Planning is not an end in itself, and the important thing is the aim being
pursued: to guide the institution towards improving quality. For this purpose
it is essential for planning to be part of a complete system of quality
improvement that integrates resource assignment, the measures to go along with
execution and later assessment.
In
an organisation like that of the Spanish university, with a complex
organisational architecture, containing different units with high
decision-making autonomy, strategic planning is of use as an instrument for
cohesion and a tool that harmonises intentions to move forward together in the
same direction. This might well be one of the biggest benefits.
Mrs. Louise Casella, University of Cardiff (UK)
The University of Cardiff was created in 1988
from the merger of two previous and well established university institutions in
Cardiff, dating back to the late 19th century. The first 5 years of the
"new" University (1988-92) were essentially a period of consolidation,
securing the University's financial future and establishing a solid base for
future developments. The second 5 years (1993-98) have been a period of
considerable growth and change at the University, with the closure of one
school, four major mergers to create new larger Schools, and the
"de-merger" of one School to form two new departments. Using the
Cardiff experience as a case study, the session will focus on success factors
for effecting change in University organisations, the role of a strongly
articulated and shared "Mission" and the value of good internal and
external communication strategies.
In
1992-93 the University reviewed its Mission, Aims and Objectives for the next
ten years and adopted the objective of securing a place in the top twelve UK
research universities by 2003. It should be noted that at the time of adopting
this objective the results of the 1992 UK Research Assessment Exercise had
ranked Cardiff 35th of all102 participating UK universities. In October 1993 a
new Vice Chancellor took up post and provided the leadership and impetus to
pursue this objective with vigour. AII major decisions taken in Cardiff from
1993 onwards were taken against the background of the over riding objective to
improve research performance throughout the University, and the organisation
and shape of the University in terms of its Schools and its supporting
functions, were examined critically to this end.
Management
and responsibility at the University of Cardiff is highly devolved. Schools are
the resource-holding bodies. Heads of Schools hold considerable power, and are
responsible directly to Council (the University's governing body) for the
proper execution of their duties. There is no major role for faculties at
Cardiff. The system is thus a two-tier one-central supporting functions (the
Vice Chancellor and Pro- Vice Chancellors, the information services, the
administration) and the Schools. The decisions to close, merge or create
Schools are therefore major undertakings with considerable consequential
effects.
The
session will therefore examine both the process and arguments behind decisions
to restructure and the range of issues that must be addressed if the
restructuring is to be successful.
Reference scheme for
managing change in universities: reorganising the K. U .Leuven administration
around a new management information system
Prof. Karel Tavernier, Katholieke Universiteit
Leuven (BE)
Against the principles for change management
developed by the management author Prof. Kotler a case of a mayor change in the
administrative "informatica" organisation at K. U .Leuven will be
discussed. Starting from a critical article in the university campus journal a
process has been set into motion which finally not only will change the
"I.T." system for the administration but also the whole
administrative organisation of the university. From a system serving mainly the
central administration it will become a radically customer driven system.
The
change involves a mayor budget decision of 220 MIO Belgian Francs, 6 new
positions of information architects, 4 additional I.T.-experts and 3 additional
staff members. All ingredients of the Kotler view on change are present: create
a sense of urgency, establish a strong enough coalition, have a long term
vision, remove the obstacles to vision, communicate the changes, plan for short
time wins, anchor the change in the corporate culture.
Reorganising the students
registration function
Mr. J on Baldwin, University of Wolverhampton
(UK)
The funding position with respect to UK
Universities has been in steady decline for a number of years now.
Concurrently, moves towards a mass system of higher education have continued
and have led to the further development of modular structures based on the
principles of credit accumulation and transfer. A change of Government in May
1997 has provided further encouragement for such moves with recent national
reports (Dearing[1][1], Kennedy[2][2] and Frye[3][3]) all encouraging flexible patterns of
growth.
In
this context, the importance of institutional efficiency and effectiveness has
been heightened and so traditional demarcations between "academic"
and "administrator" have come sharply into focus. In truth, many
academics have, over the years, taken on traditional administrative roles and
have been rewarded (in promotional terms) for this. In a climate where the
importance of doing more with less prevails, such a situation cannot,
logically, be permitted to continue. Essentially, academics have to be freed
from the "burden" of administration which must in turn be taken on by
a cadre of professional (administrative) staff.
The
paper will use this context to explore a major organizational change at the
University of Wolverhampton in 1996/97. The University has some 24.000
students, 5 geographically distant Campuses and 2.500 staff. It has a modular
curriculum and a long history of offering flexibility and accessibility to
students. Prior to 1996, student administration was largely devoted to 4
Faculties, each comprising 3 or 4 Academic Schools (e.g. a Faculty of Science
and Technology comprised the Schools of Applied Sciences, Engineering and the
Built Environment, Computing and Information Technology and Health Sciences).
Such a devotion permitted major variation in terms of the type and levels of
service provided for students. In a modular institution with many cross-school
programmes, this was not acceptable.
To
overcome this “problem” a University Registry was created with the aim of
managing all aspects of the student life-cycle from the point of enquiry to the
point of exit from the institution. Local Campus Registry Services were
established in order to ensure a uniformity of service and seconded academics
working for the Registrar were appointed to begin to tackle those difficult
para-academic areas around (e.g.) the admission of students and their
subsequent counseling with respect to programme choice.
The
change itself involved some 160 staff directly and, perhaps more importantly,
implied and sponsored a changed culture with respect to how, precisely, the
institution was managed. One year on from the “going live” date, things are
beginning to bed-in and the session allowed us to explore both successes and
continuing tensions.
Ms. Andrée TurubanUniversité de Haute Bretagne,
Rennes II (FR)
I The Changeover tot the EURO
1) The calendar of
the changeover to the single currency
-
-
Phase
A: The launch of EMU, 1-3 May: decision about the "first wave" of EMU
entrants; launch of the European Central Bank
-
-
Phase
B: The transition period, from 1/1/1999 to 31/12/2001, the effective launch of
EMU
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Phase
C: The generalization of the single currency, from 1/12002 to 1/7/2002
2)
The currency: the coins and notes. The euro conversation rate.
3)
The preparation of public institutions and administrations to the changeover to
the euro.
II
Practical Approach to the effective Management of the Introduction of the EURO
in a University
The
key steps to manage the changeover:
1)
The global strategy:
2)
Most functions of the university are interested in the changeover to the euro:
a)
“Marketing”
b)
The supply chain: Procurement and logistics
But
the functions mainly involved are:
c)
Financing
d)
Accounting, taxation, legal issues
e)
The Information Technology department
[1][1] Higher Education in the Learning Society,
Report of the National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education.
[2][2] Learning Works. Report of the Further Education
Funding Council Committee on Widening Participation.
[3][3] Learning for the Twenty-First Century. First
Report of the National Advisory Group for Continuing Education and Lifelong
Learning.