Melissa Bradley Administration Manager, Faculty of Humanities, University of Kent; UK, Co-convenor of Organisational Development Network, Fellow and Trustee of the AUA @BradleyMelissa

Carroll Graham Research Associate, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, UTS (former Executive Manager, ISF, UTS); Association Secretary and Associate Fellow, ATEM @carroll_graham

Valuing the roles of professional staff in Higher Education

A UK/AUA and a Australian/ATEM perspective

Outline of the presentation

• Setting the context

• The debate: key discussion topics

• Learning Points

• Questions

• Further reading

Setting the scene

John of Salisbury (died 1180) wrote:

If you are a real scholar you are thrust out in the cold. Unless you are a money-maker, I say, you will be considered a fool, a pauper. The lucrative arts, such as law and medicine, are now in vogue, and only those things are pursued which have a cash value.

https://hist2615.wikispaces.com/John+of+Salisbury+-+A+Medieval+Renaissance+Man

Radford, J., Raaheim, K., De Vries, P. & Williams, R. 1997, Quantity and Quality in Higher Education, Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd, London.

Setting the scene (c. 1375)

Laurentius de Voltolina http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Laurentius_de_Voltolina_001.jpg

Is the paradigm shifting though?

Charles Barsotti, The New Yorker

Global HE issues

• Costs of Higher Education

• New providers

• Student Expectations / Consumerism

• Employability / Graduate level roles

• Globalisation / Internationalism

• Managerialism

• Digital (r)evolution

• Regulation / accountability

Professional identity and value of professional staff

• Are we professional and are we a profession?

Gornitzka and Larsen (2004) Blümel (2008) The emergence of a common cognitive basis

The development of a specialised body of practical and problem-solving knowledge that becomes systematised

An increase in requirements for formal qualifications required to hold university administrative positions

The establishment of an academic program of study, qualification and training

The growth and formalisation of networks between university administrative staff

A professional association or occupational network, which regulates entrance into the profession, provides a basis for knowledge exchange and licensing of qualifications

An increase in formal status of university administrative positions

Increased status and autonomy in decision-making

Frameworks for the professionalisation of university professional staff.

Straw Poll - Has the role of Professional Staff and our contribution changed in recent times?

• Are you professional in your work?

• Are you a professional?

• Are you part of a global profession?

• Did you select this profession by choice?

• What collective term for professional staff do you identify with?

• Professional staff? • General staff? • Support staff? • Admin staff? • Other?

Simple show of hands*

* Adapted from an exercise devised by Dr Kenton Lewis - www.kentonlewis.co.uk"

Straw Poll II

• Are you contributing to the core academic purposes of your institution in your work?

• Student learning outcomes?

• Research?

• Other?

Wider recognition of HE administration as a career?

Few of us ever plan to be a University administrator, so what does that mean in terms of professional identity?

The invisible worker? The invisible profession? The accidental profession?

Used with permission of Matthew Andrews

Professional staff status and role in UK

• Development of the status of professional staff in higher education?

• “Any academics who think their university and all its elements revolve around them may have to prepare for a cosmic shift.” THE, 14 April 2011

-10%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Expenditure Staff

Academic Other

Professional staff status and role in AU

• Similar pattern in Australia

-10%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Expenditure Staff

Academic Other

Staff in AU and UK HE institutions

48%

49%

50%

51%

52%

53%

54%

55%

56%

57%

58%

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

Percentage of Professional Staff of all University Staff

AU

UK

Career Pathways: UK view

AUA CPD Framework: http://www.aua.ac.uk/LGM/careerpathwaysfinal.pdf See also Whitchurch, C. (2008). Professional Managers in UK Higher Education: Preparing for Complex Futures Final Report. Research and Development Series. London: Leadership Foundation for Higher Education

Key discussion topics:

1. Is there a case for higher education as a profession?

2. Is there a need to promote higher education administration as a career of choice?

3. Should we / do we attract and retain our graduates?

4. Are there concrete career pathways and routes?

5. What are the issues around specialist roles versus generalist roles?

6. How does the interface between administration in academic units and central services work?

Reporting back: 1. Is there a case for higher education as a profession?

• Expectations have changed within the university community – staff and students

• Career trajectories have emerged

• Academic recognition and qualifications of professional staff

• Changing nature of academic work, and moving to blended roles

• Other professions coming into the sector and needing to gain an understanding of the complexity of university work

Reporting back: 2. Is there a need to promote higher education administration as a career of choice? • Difficulty understanding roles within the sector, let alone for those outside

• Perception of students and academic staff not knowing what we do during semester breaks – so what hope others?

• No standards across titles or functions across the sector, especially for generalists

Reporting back: 3. Should we / do we attract and retain our graduates?

• Is it a profession?

• How is it viewed internally / externally?

• Some moved from being a student to graduate employee in the same institution

• What do we mean by HE professional?

• How do we explain that both internally and externally?

Reporting back: 4. Are there concrete career pathways and routes?

• NO!

• Heterogeneity of role make it difficult to have a defined career path

• Perhaps easier in central services (e.g. finances, HR, etc.)

• Professional associations could ramp up efforts in terms of benchmarking expertise and roles.

• Need for a common framework

Reporting back: 5. What are the issues around specialist roles versus generalist roles? • Is there a “versus”? Assume specialists means professions that exist outside HE

• The route for generalists is more winding

• There is no qualification required to become a generalist professional in HE

• Even within generalists there are specialist roles

• Order out of chaos = bureaucracy

• We need to value our work so that others can value it

Reporting back: 6. How does the interface between administration in academic units and central services work?

• Facilitation role played between central roles and academic units

• Collaboration is essential

• Some senior leadership roles that were formerly administration have been reclassified as academic

Practical ways to enhance professional identity

UK examples: • AUA Annual Awards, THE and Guardian Awards

• Embedding the AUA CPD framework in universities

• Administration Projects

• Promoting and facilitating knowledge and qualifications (e.g. Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Management Administration, Management and Leadership)

Austral(as)ian examples:

• ATEM / Campus Review Best Practice Awards

• Creating debate in social and traditional media

• Promoting and facilitating knowledge and qualifications (e.g. eLAMP)

Professional staff . . .

AUA / ATEM at careers expos?

Questions?

Further reading: UK

Recent Journal Articles from Perspectives: • http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13603108.2014.88

2427

• http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13603108.2014.914107?src=recsys

Other Journals: • http://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/3199/2/3199.pdf

Higher Education Blogs: • http://blogs.kent.ac.uk/change-

academy/category/professionalism/

• http://registrarism.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/administrators-cannot-offer-enlightened-management/

• http://registrarism.wordpress.com/2012/02/01/the-imperfect-university-who-should-lead-universities/

Further reading: Australia

Recent Journal Articles from Journal of Higher Education Policy & Management: • http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.10

80/1360080X.2014.916470

• http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.lib.uts.edu.au/doi/pdf/10.1080/1360080X.2013.844663

Other Journals: • http://higheredprofessionals.info/system/files/anothermatrixrevo

lution.pdf

Higher Education Blogs: • http://www.lhmartininstitute.edu.au/insights-blog/2011/06/49-

managers-for-a-demand-driven-environment

• http://www.lhmartininstitute.edu.au/insights-blog/2014/06/181-new-technologies-and-the-blurring-of-boundaries

• http://www.lhmartininstitute.edu.au/insights-blog/2013/09/152-university-professional-staff-enhancing-student-outcomes