organising for success / engagement sessions · processes and single trusted data sources •a...
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The UK’s European university
Organising for Success / Engagement Sessions
School Groupings
Purpose of Today
• To share the rationale for the changes that are being
proposed and the headline key changes
• To give you the opportunity to ask questions and make
suggestions
Organising for Success – Engagement EventsPage 2
Content
• Rehearsal of why we need to make changes to
the structure at Kent and how we do things
• Headline current thinking
• The proposed school groupings, how they will
be developed and might work
• Time for questions and discussion
• How we are moving forward
Organising for Success – Engagement EventsPage 3
Strategy Refresh
• The University strategy has been refreshed this
academic year and has three key pillars:
• Research and Innovation
• Education and Student Experience
• Engagement and Civic Mission
• Our strategy sets out a road map for change,
development and sustained growth, but we need to do
things differently if we are to deliver our ambitions in this
volatile environment.
• To do this, we need to change how we are currently
structured to ensure that they support academic activity
and the delivery of our Strategic Plan
Organising for Success – Engagement EventsPage 4
Organising for Success – key drivers
Addressing student and staff feedback. This includes:
• a need to improve our performance as a University, with better
alignment of decision-making, accountability and resources
• a desire to improve communication and engagement
• bureaucracy and layers slows decisions and creates poor
communications
• an inconsistent student experience across multiple schools and
centres and services
• a strong ‘school identity’ is seen as key for student and staff
recruitment and creating a sense of community
• a need for clear and streamlined work flows, digitisation of
processes and single trusted data sources
• a greater sense of being ‘academically led’ within our core
mission
• a need to be more agile and responsive, be bold and take
some risks.
Organising for Success – Engagement EventsPage 5
Organising for Success – key drivers
These changes are designed to:
• allow synergies to be developed quickly within cognate
academic and professional areas that reduce duplication and
diffusion of activity
• provide a consistent baseline service to students, sponsors and
staff
• Provide greater value for money
• Create more resilient and flexible academic units, able to adapt
to a volatile environment
• Improve connections between academic units and senior
management
• Deliver EG/Central PSD structures that fully support academic
activity and the themes of the Strategic Plan
Organising for Success – Engagement EventsPage 6
The Proposal
• A single layer of groupings of Schools • 6-8 to ensure more direct connection with EG, shaping policy and
strategy
• Greater financial autonomy and more local decision making
• School identity maintained (if wanted) within groupings
• Groupings led by a Head of Group
• Head of Group will have ultimate responsibility for academic and
financial success of grouping
• Group level will be responsible for administrative and student
support to Schools/subjects via pooled resource
• Further central services to be devolved to grouping from centre
subject to devolutions principles / discussions / costs
• Central professional services re-aligned to support EG portfolios
and institutional objectivesOrganising for Success – Engagement EventsPage 7
Overview
• Project Board established• Co-sponsors Denise Everitt & David Nightingale
• First three meetings held
• Meeting weekly
• Formal JSNCC sub-group established• All Union and staff reps involved
• Currently meeting weekly to establish concerns and
update on progress – also discussing other relevant
issues such as Voluntary Severance Scheme
• Website launched• https://www.kent.ac.uk/organising-for-success/
• Information will be added as engagement ramps up
Organising for Success - Engagement EventsPage 8
Principles for new School Groupings
• School Groupings is a working title…
• Principles• The nature of the subjects and disciplines across the
University and the taught programmes of study
• The research environment (PGRs, research
expertise, research centres, interdisciplinary
research)
• Consideration of the TEF and REF mapping based
on CAH2 for TEF and UoA for REF
• Size of proposed new School Groupings
• Technical requirements for teaching and research
• Resources requirements for teaching and research
• Locations, space, and facilities
Organising for Success – Engagement EventsPage 9
Process so far
• Senior DVC and Provost has led this
stream supported by the Faculty Deans
• Met collectively with all Heads of School by
Faculty, and across all Faculties
• Series of individual meetings and follow ups
• Input from emails directly to EG colleagues
and to [email protected]
• Kent Union representation on Project Board
Organising for Success – Engagement EventsPage 10
School Groupings – Engagement
Page 11
School Grouping 1
Comprising:
School of Architecture and PlanningSchool of Arts
School of EnglishCentre for Music and Audio Technology
School Grouping 5
Comprising:
Kent Business School
School Grouping 3
Comprising:
School of BiosciencesSchool of Physical Sciences
School of Sport and Exercise SciencesMedway School of Pharmacy *
Kent and Medway Medical School**
School Grouping 7
Comprising:
Kent Law SchoolSchool of Social Policy, Sociology and Social
ResearchCentre for Journalism
* - affiliate** - affiliate when up and running
# - CAS, CMEMS not shown
School Grouping 6
Comprising:
School of Anthropology and ConservationSchool of Economics
School of Politics and International RelationsSchool of Psychology
School Grouping 2
Comprising:
School of European Culture and LanguagesSchool of History
School Grouping 4
Comprising:
School of ComputingSchool of Engineering and Digital Arts
School of Mathematics, Statistics and Actuarial Science
Organising for Success – Engagement EventsPage 12
Questions?
Discussion starters
• How do we ensure collaborative working within and
between School Groupings?
• School Groupings will be larger than existing
Schools so how might members of School
Groupings best inform Group level activities?
• Are there any particular risks or difficulties arising
from the proposed School Groupings?
• Are there any obvious missed opportunities in term
of potential synergies between Schools?
• How should we ensure effective communication
and consultation within School Groupings?
Organising for Success – Engagement EventsPage 13
Timeline
• Structured engagement activities with staff, Heads
and other stakeholders (e.g. KU) will be ongoing in
March/early-mid April
• Review and reflect on Feedback
• Proposals to Senate: May and 12th June 2019
• Council Meeting 28th June
• Target - implementation work to start Summer 2019
with target implementation complete by end 2020
Organising for Success – Engagement EventsPage 14
Engagement and Feedback
• In addition to providing feedback to line managers and via
[email protected] and other channels, this event is
part of a series of engagement events.
• These thematic engagement events cover:
• Devolution of professional services
• Organisational structure - PSDs
• School / group configuration and governance /
management
• Transfer of faculty accountabilities/responsibilities
• New leadership model
Organising for Success – Engagement EventsPage 15
THE UK’S EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY
www.kent.ac.uk