institutional management in higher education Issues, trends, and anticipations institutional management in higher education

Questions for reflection How is your university/faculty/department organized? What is the decision making process (at the university/faculty/department level) ? How does the organizational structure and decision-making process affect the management of your unit? Are there any areas of management in your institution that you feel need improvement? What changes could be introduced in the management of these areas?

University as an organization (1) Basic purpose of a higher education institution: creation and dissemination of knowledge Organizational focus is the discipline Organizational unit is the department “Bottom-heavy” organization For efficiency it needs coordinating & integrative forces No basic criteria for institutional performance (number of graduates, employability, quality of research, budget efficiency, access often conflicting)

University as an organization (2) Basic patterns Vests authority at the bottom in the faculties, then at the top in the government bureaucracy, little authority at the administrative level of the institution (Continental Europe model) Vests authority at the bottom in the faculties + certain influence at the administrative level, little influence at the government level (UK model) Vests authority in the middle with the institutional administration and trustees, with some authority at the level of the department and very little influence of the government (USA model)

Decision-making process (1) Collegial Authoritative Democracy Ad-hoc committee based Consensual

Decision making process (2) Trend Reduce the number & streamlining decision-making committees; Reduce the number of decision making layers; Decentralized authority to the basic units; Increase professionalism of academic and administrative leaders; Establishment of more direct pattern of accountability in the system

discussion How is the organization structure at UNSOED? How is decision made? Does it follow the trend? What improvement can be introduced?

Institutional management Functions: Planning Organizing Leading Controlling Developing

Management concept and techniques Global trend: increased autonomy. Trend in the USA 1960's: Planning Programming and Budgeting System through annual budget specification Management by Objectives (MBO) to increase institutional effectiveness 1970's: strategic planning first, management later (process oriented) 1980's: TQM to attain the best customer satisfaction (process oriented) Q: how about here?

Strategic planning Identify threat and opportunities through environmental scanning of politic, social, demographic, and cultural changes Continuous assessment of internal strength and weaknesses w/r to research, teaching and comm services programs, finances, facilities, resources, management processes and institutional values Basic mission translated into long-term goals (broad direction) which then detailed in more operational & short term objectives “Mission statement” to convey the message to stake holders Note: the process is more important!

Exercise 1 Analyse O&T faced by your department Analyse S&W of your department Is your department mission in-line with the SWOT analysis result? Translate SWOT analysis results into long-term goals Based on the above, write a “mission statement” for education program Idem, write a “mission statement” for research program

Performance indicators Start with the mission, without knowing the aim it is difficult to tell if it is doing well Is the mission worthwile? Is the aims appropriate? PI can show how well a university achieves its mission Set it out clearly

Types of performance indicators Quantitative dimensions of the main inputs (staff, students, buildings, equipment, library books, cash) Outputs (student places, graduates, research publications); Relationship b/w input & output (efficiency indicators); Quality of activities/outcomes (employability of grad, impact of research publications, research results being adopted) Process (service provided for other dept, student satisfaction, services)

Criteria for a useful indicators Relevance – measure something that is worth measuring in relation to the aims of the institution; Validity – must measure what they claim to measure; Reliability – must measure the same thing in different context at different points of time; Accuracy – must be accurate within appropriate limits to what they will be used for; Ready availability – should not be too difficult or too expensive to obtain; Up-to-date – available in time for appropriate decision making; Cheat-proof – not possible to be distorted

Exercise 2 Based on your long-term goals set relevant performance indicators and establish the baseline for those indicators