Coping with a site visit: An institution’s perspective Rudi Laugksch UCT Pre-visit arrangements Arrangements during the visit Requests from the panel Post-visit arrangements Interaction with the panel

Pre-visit arrangements Received schedule for site visit Making appointments with the right people Choosing rooms for the panel’s use Documentation made available Parking Budget Received the schedule for the site visit from the HEQC Very little flexibility and difficult to comprehend exactly what each interview was about. Making appointments with the right people Not easy in each case to judge from the schedule sent to us who the appropriate people in our context were. Made some mistakes, both people who weren’t necessary at particular interviews and others who should have been there. Was ESSENTIAL to contact them immediately the schedule was received to get then to diarise the interviews. Choosing rooms for the panel’s use Didn’t realise that they would stay in one room all the time, and it wasn’t very suitable for the number of people at times (don’t know what we’ll do this year!) Documentation Planned to have it loosely available – turned out to be a very scrappy arrangement. Parking In the event, not difficult to arrange but it needed special arrangements and an officer on duty each morning to let the cars in. Budget Difficult to know how much the meals and other refreshments would cost, and there was no budget provision for this.

Arrangements during the visit Meeting with the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Liaison person’s responsibility Panel meals, etc. Changes to the schedule by the panel Meeting with Deputy Vice-Chancellor Did not take kindly to the fact that he was asked to come to the panel and couldn’t welcome them in his own office. Made the point that it was the first time he had been invited to welcome people to his university. Liaison person’s responsibility Much more demanding than expected – needed to be on hand all the time. Panel meals etc. Assumed that the panel would like to walk to lunch in a restaurant at the other side of the campus – they would have preferred to have had lunch served to them in the room. Also not always easy to have the teas and drinks and sweets etc. ready at the times they were wanted (e.g. coffee at 18:00, when everyone else had left). Changes to the schedule by panel There was virtually no interview that wasn’t late – meant that there had to be a “waiting room” and people to be interviewed had to be apologised to the whole time. Some interviews were also moved or cancelled.

Requests from the panel Requests to interview individuals not on the schedule Requests for more information Requests to interview people not on the schedule Two requests were made, one at very short notice (and the Panel also had its discretion to re-call people (but did not do so)). Complied with, but not easy to persuade people at short notice that they have to be interviewed by something they know nothing about at a fixed time. Requests for more information/data Some were very easy to comply with, others not as easy (like having to get someone to fax a copy of the degree certificate) etc.

Post-visit arrangements Arranging shipment of portfolios Conveying thanks Interaction with the panel Quite a strange experience… Post-visit arrangements Portfolios We were asked to courier a large box containing all the portfolios and other information used by the panel to the HEQC offices after the visit. Thanks Everyone who was interviewed needed to be thanked and informed about how the visit had gone as a whole. Interaction with the panel A strange experience! Collegial but not collegial. A sense of wanting to find out “what they were looking for / wanted”. De-briefings after every interview to find out what was asked and by whom. The desire to want to interact in a friendly, host-like way, but a real sense of a need to keep the distance.