1. A personal insight into academic priorities A DAY IN THE LIFE Chris Orme, School of Social Sciences

2. COMMUNICATION & ENGAGEMENT When “DJ” and I first met [c.1995]

3. WHAT DO ACADEMICS ACTUALLY DO? surely it can’t be that hard a JOB? give a few hours of lectures a week, for less than half the year mark some exam scripts publish 4 papers every 6 years or write a book get used to rejection but not when it comes to promotion - more later !

4. Tuscany Dordogne AND THE LONG SUMMER VACATIONS …

5. SELF EMPLOYED OR PROFESSIONAL STUDENT? secure tenure & academic freedom pursue independent research research-informed & research-led teaching autonomy, e.g., curriculum design “my” international reputation competing metrics, e.g., REF, academic standing, “good- egg”, forever worrying about the next “idea” argument for argument’s sake? The “why” question.

6. ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL Discipline norms, not University norms Economics v Art History Even, Economics v Sociology managing talent or herding cats ? How difficult can it be to get published? How difficult can it be to get published in the RIGHT journals??? TOP 5 Economics journals - >95% REJECTION RATE

7. TIME ALLOCATION & SKILLS developing, constructing and delivering the learning experience intellectual contribution Performing Arts 15 x 50min lectures x 3 courses, 200-600 students style over substance? And the curse of … Powerpoint, Captivate, Podcasting Blackboard [500 students x 1 course] MOOCs, …… Microsoft Office, in general, “VLOOKUP” in particular exam marking [500 students]

8. TIME ALLOCATION & SKILLS getting to know students Academic Advising being socially responsible and communicating research managing budgets, understanding ORACLE Understanding Campus Solutions, managing talent “Being the DA techy person who can solve a fairly straightforward problem because the alleged support is elsewhere constructing policy documents at Faculty level about how more centralised teaching and leaning support will be better for the students” policies which academics are ill-equipped to deliver

9. PERCEPTIONS & ENGAGEMENT What are the KPI, metrics employed for PSS Staff performance? Perhaps 30% increase in the number of KPIs that academics will be judged against by 2020 SoSS Student load: 3203 Acad FTE: 182 (17.6) PSS FTE: 49 (65.40) [3.7]

10. PERCEPTIONS & ENGAGEMENT What are the KPI, metrics employed for PSS Staff performance? Perhaps 30% increase in the number of KPIs that academics will be judged against by 2020 SoSS Student load: 3203 Acad FTE: 182 (17.6) PSS FTE: 49 (65.40) [3.7] SALC Student load: 4810 Acad FTE: 334 (14.4) PSS FTE: 99 (48.6) [3.4]

11. PERCEPTIONS & ENGAGEMENT What are the KPI, metrics employed for PSS Staff performance? Perhaps 30% increase in the number of KPIs that academics will be judged against by 2020 SoSS Student load: 3203 Acad FTE: 182 (17.6) PSS FTE: 49 (65.40) [3.7] SALC Student load: 4810 Acad FTE: 334 (14.4) PSS FTE: 99 (48.6) [3.4] Faculty Office Student load: 0 Acad FTE: 3 PSS FTE: 123

12. PARTNERSHIPS academics are curious, but interested in “their” own problems for a variety of reasons support the objective of improving the student experience as the President says, … PSS play an important role here two-sided, relationship building, but long-distance relationships are vulnerable

13. COMMUNICATION & RELATIONSHIPS Emails are necessary but not sufficient “if it’s important they will email back, if it’s very important they might phone, if it’s critically important they might even want to come and talk with me face to face” Maintain short lines of communication not a series of isolated (vertical) functional “processes” do senior PSS staff at the Centre/Faculty know senior academics in “departments” individually, and vice-versa? has the separation gone to far - PSS, Academic, Student ?