AUA Planning Forum Ian Diamond University of Aberdeen 9.2.12
Dec 02, 2014
AUA Planning Forum
Ian DiamondUniversity of Aberdeen 9.2.12
Preliminaries
• University Planning is Critical
• All universities have a Strategic Plan
• BUT Do all universities have goals and milestones?
• AND Do all universities formally monitor these?
Preliminaries II• All strategic plans focus on excellence
• Need to enunciate what we mean by excellence
• Can we justify every penny is spent wisely
• Political and Social Imperative
Excellence : ‘Twas ever thus’
1495
‘that both clerics and laymen would readily apply themselves to literary studies and acquire the precious pearl of knowledge in such fashion that the ignorant would become informed and the uneducated learned’
2011
‘to be recognised throughout the world as a renowned international university, focussing on society’s future needs and challenges, employing the best staff and delivering a unique and stimulating intellectual experience for our students’
A Changing World• Why do Universities need planning when
perhaps they didn’t always?
Aberdeen Students Staff Budget
1495 36 students & staff £12 6s
1980 5,934 1,800 £23m
2010 16,000 3,500 £225m
Complex organisations need complex planning
• Income Sources:
Students - UG, PGT & PGR
Research
Commercialisation
Philanthropy
Role of Planners?
• Inform (Ensure?) evidence based policy making at all levels of the university
• Lead analysis of performance against plan ‘own’ good management information
• Horizon Scanning• Pushing Innovation• Evidence to advise on extent to which market leading
• Risk Management
Informing Policy in a Changing Environment
We live in a changing/unknown political context
Example: UGs in Scottish HEIs
University of Aberdeen Strategic Objective 1: A Student Experience Second to None
Challenge: Scottish/EU Capped
RUK Uncapped
International Uncapped
Scottish/EU
• Maximise Entrance Grades
• Do not overshoot in a changing UK market
• Get balance of STEM/Non-STEM; controlled subjects
• Consider WP – outcome agreements to be negotiated
RUK• Set Fees Understand Costs TRAC
• Maximise Subject to Maximise Grades/Retaining Quality
• Increasing need to understand market
• Strategies to maximise conversion
• Bursary strategy
• Consider WP
• Estimate future market potential
• Difficult, no data need to understand market!!
International
• Understand Market
• Traditional, New, TNE, Distance
• Forecast Future Numbers
• Modelling a)must be integrated with strategy; b) must involve academic structures
CIRCULARITY
Student Numbers Experience Student Numbers
Estimating future numbers requires an integrated model of the University
ASSOCIATED DATA FOR STUDENT EXPERIENCE
• Space eg Mealor Effect
• Accommodation
• Teaching Quality/Load
• Research Requirements and Needs
REQUIREMENTS FOR EVIDENCE BASED PLANNING
• An Intercollated Model of the Student Journey
• One version of the Truth (NTV)
• Knowledge & Evidence of Factors Driving Growth
Admissions
ApplicantPortal
On-lineApplication
StudentRecords
Accommodation
StudentPortal
E-RegistrationPortal
E-Payments
STUDENTMAIL
LibrarySystems
Pre-EntryMarketing
Target:-Home UgradO’Seas UgradAccessKey LearningPG TaughtPG Research
Application3rd party service
PaperApplication
E-Graduation AlumniEngagement.
Virtual LearningEnvironment
TimeTableStudent
Monitoring
FinanceManagement
Purchasing
Budgeting &Forecasting
Pre-Application Application Registration
CurriculumManagement
Business Intelligence Reporting and Dashboards
Teaching & LearningGraduation Alumni
Advising
ID Card
StudentProgression
Programme & Course Portal
EstatesManagement
Human Resource& Payroll
Student Process
On-Line Staff Recruitment
Slide courtesy of Mark Lewis
MAINTAINING QUALITY OF STUDENT EXPERIENCE
1) Resource Allocation needs a clear understanding of costs
2) Estates Planning How often are planners deeply entrenched in Estates planning?
SOME NOTES ON RESOURCE ALLOCATION
• Space Models
• ‘Service’ Teaching
• Incentivisation
• Home v Away eg Engineer takes Sociology
• What are costs? (TRAC)
• Transparency does not mean shadowing income streams
FundManagement
Research Process
Pre-Awa
rd
Opportunity
Post Awa
rdOutput
Commercialisatio
nProposals
PublicationManagement
Open Access Repository
Costing
Review & Approval
FundingApplication
ProjectMonitoring
PGRDevelopment
CommercialisationRelationship Mgt
Reporting
REFFinancial
Accounting
LibrarySystems
Slide Courtesy of Mark Lewis
Data Needs for Research Model
• Planners/Finance integrated with Academics
• TRAC
UUK Task Force on Modernisation and Efficiencies
• Economic context
• Universities recognise the national imperative to reduce costs
• Global perspective
• Increasing competition within tighter resource constraints ‘Higher Education in a world utterly changed: Doing more with less’ (OECD/IMHE, Sept 2010)
• Doing ........... with less!!
BUT
• A Continuing Agenda
• Eg in Scotland 2008/11 Universities and Colleges collectively made over £123m of cash releasing savings
Maintaining this quality!
“Scotland is above average in terms of teaching activity and with high levels of spend on research relative to GDP, performs in the top quartile on measures of research efficiency. This appears to be consistent with quantitative findings from a report to the EC that ranks the UK as the most efficient higher education system in technical terms.” (Tripartite Group, 2010)
Note: yellow highlight is my addition
Recommendations
• Interventions should fit longer term strategic aims rather than short term
Planning
• Cost reduction activities should be clear on savings and benefits expected and based on robust data
Planning
• The key area all HEIs can focus on is the development of better and leaner internal processes
Admissions
ApplicantPortal
On-lineApplication
StudentRecords
Accommodation
StudentPortal
E-RegistrationPortal
E-Payments
STUDENTMAIL
LibrarySystems
Pre-EntryMarketing
Target:-Home UgradO’Seas UgradAccessKey LearningPG TaughtPG Research
Application3rd party service
PaperApplication
E-Graduation AlumniEngagement.
Virtual LearningEnvironment
TimeTableStudent
Monitoring
FinanceManagement
Purchasing
Budgeting &Forecasting
Pre-Application Application Registration
CurriculumManagement
Business Intelligence Reporting and Dashboards
Teaching & LearningGraduation Alumni
Advising
ID Card
StudentProgression
Programme & Course Portal
EstatesManagement
Human Resource& Payroll
Student Process
On-Line Staff Recruitment
Recommendations IIData & Benchmarking• Develop better data on operation costs (finance, HR, IT etc) and
commodity costs (procurement).
• To enhance transparency around operational costs, indicators to be developed to show progress on savings being made across operational functions and reported annually.
• A common HE framework for developing benchmarks on operational functions to be developed by UUK, linking to FSSG and HESA work
links with ‘TRAC’
• Advice on implications of competition law should be developed.
Recommendations III
Shared services
• Models for developing shared services exist and good practice should be disseminated
• HEIs should look to exploit existing services with a track record of excellence rather than just looking to develop new organisational structures; and to link outside of the sector.
Recommendations IVRegulation• The govt should implement the mandatory VAT
exemption on shared services (DONE)
• The govt should clarify the position of HEIs in relation to public sector regulations in light of the new funding arrangements – balance between public/private finance in HE
• The sector should engage with post-legislative scrutiny of FoI and develop better understanding of associated costs (ONGOING)
Recommendations V
Procurement
• Develop a national body to lead procurement in England (follow Scottish APUC model)
• Set up a UK-wide strategic procurement group to lead policy, promote good practice and guide the establishment of a Centre of Excellence (CIPS/AUPO)
• Establish a minimum target for England of 30% non-pay spend to be channelled through collaborative agreements – to be revised upwards over time
The Future: A Continued Sense of Urgency
• Leadership, Implementation and Monitoring• Leading Strategic Change• Monitoring and Evaluation Panel• Efficiency and Innovation Hub
• Developing Data and Benchmarking• Identifying Benchmarks• Framework for Benchmarking• Understanding Costs
A Continued Sense of Urgency II
• Embedding Recommendations
• Action Plans across all areas
• Process Improvement and Shared Services
• Academic Processes, practice and research
Must involve planners and be evidence based
A Continued Sense of Urgency III
• Addressing regulatory challenges to efficiency
• VAT Cost Sharing Exemption
• Regulatory Practice
• Competition Law and the HE Sector
• Developing Procurement
Pump Priming
• LFHE Fund to support initiatives in Efficiency Innovation
Summary• Universities are ever more large and complex
organisations
• Large and complex organisations need to have evidence based plans
• Excellence must be the focus but efficiencies are needed and should be celebrated
• Need to look for ways of doing things differently
• All this needs planners!!!