In the modern organisational
landscape, universities have stood the test of time yet a quaint perception of tranquillity
often colours the expectations of those with limited exposure to the
sector. They imagine ivory towers
populated with academics so enthralled by the pursuit of new knowledge that
they are impervious to pleas from the wider public to avoid corduroy and sandal/sock
combinations. Those inside the sector see a different reality where our
universities face a dynamic, challenging and globally competitive landscape of
rankings and endless measurement.
Despite this, universities still tend to describe those tasks that
relate to the day to day running of our organisations as “admin” with suitable
connotations of Civil Service circa 1950.
Vice Chancellors may talk in terms of leadership, Lord Adonis might rail
against the growing ranks of “senior management” but early career academics will
most likely be invited to take on an admin role. Here’s how to make the best of the
opportunity.
See it as an
opportunity
As an
academic you’ll most likely be aware that someone is responsible for the
allocation of your duties each year.
These duties are typically categorised under the headings of teaching,
research and administration. Whether it
is your Head of Department, Subject Leader, Head of Institute or some other
title, someone will have to find a “volunteer” to take on a plethora of admin duties
such as course leader, year group head, programme director and the like. Outbreaks of rampant volunteering are rare
when trying to find colleagues willing to take on such tasks and therein lies
the opportunity. The stark reality is that your university needs someone to
fulfil these roles in order to function.
When it comes to annual review conversations and eventually to
promotion, your CV will look infinitely more rounded if it demonstrates that
you have the capacity to get things done. Yes, your teaching and research need
to be good, but unless they are absolutely stellar you’ll be better placed to
advance your career if you can point to some admin experience. That aside, you’ll have marked yourself out
from the crowd by the simple act of volunteering.
Clarify what’s
expected of you
Admin roles
vary in size, shape and complexity.
Don’t just say yes without any discussion. Ask what the role entails. Is
there a job description? Can you speak to the current incumbent? What would
“good” look like? And, how long would you be expected to hold to the role? These questions should form the basis of a
constructive discussion with whoever is asking you to take on the role. Done badly this could be heard as a set of
ransom demands by your line manager. Done well however, these questions could
help shape your own career development. Be open about what you are hoping to
achieve from the role and get your colleague(s) to be clear about their
expectations. If possible, ask to shadow
someone who is doing the role or find a mentor who is regarded as having been a
success in the role.
Chronicle
your achievements
If you buy the advice
that volunteering for admin roles will help you as you move forward in your
career, then it follows logically that you should keep records before, during
and after your tenure in such roles.
Capture some metrics as you come into the role, how many of, how long
things take, how people rate the service, etc. The specifics will depend on the
role but you and others will have a sense of what the key measures are (if only
because you’ll have been regaled with tales of woe that reflect when and where
things have gone wrong). Set yourself
the task of improving some of these measures and keep notes of what you’ve
changed, who you’ve worked with to effect improvements and what evidence there
is that you have delivered. In the
pre-internet era, one of my first administrative roles was that of Exams
Officer. I simplified the process that I
inherited because it involved colleagues completing over 20 different forms. My radical innovation was to use a single
form that logged who approved what, and when.
Hardly ground breaking, but keeping copies of the old and the new forms
allowed me to demonstrate the improvement and critically, my role in it. Simply
holding a role title won’t be enough come annual review time, promotion panels
or interviews. You’ll be asked what you achieved. Better yet, if the performance measures drop
off after you demit office, note these too such that you can present an heroic
narrative that all was well when you were in charge.
Use the
chance to learn how your industry works
Your university will
likely have a turnover in excess of some Premier League football teams. In that multi-million pound environment,
money doesn’t just appear any more than Gold TEF awards or upper quartile
rankings in the Times Higher simply happen. Use your involvement in the day to
day running of the organisation to help build your understanding of how your
industry works. Admin roles can offer you
a first chance to move beyond your own discipline to see how other parts of
your own university operate and even how other universities operate. Speak to
the people you meet, ask questions of your external examiners, ask your
research colleagues how they execute the tasks for which you’ve been given
responsibility in their institutions. It
may be that you find that you have a
talent for organizing. If so, you’ll feel yourself being sucked into that specific
sub-set of academic life that leads inexorably toward greater and greater
administrative responsibility. Vice
Chancellors have to start somewhere after all.
You might equally have a complete aversion to anything that takes you
away from the academic purity of learning and advancing human knowledge. Even if that is the case, you’ll be better
able to interface with those who do run your university if you understand your
organisation as an organisation. Even better, take the time to learn the
language, syntax and grammar of the administrative conversations that influence
your working environment.
Make a
difference
Take a
moment and realise that whatever the admin role and however low-status it may
appear to you or to your colleagues, it is probably central to continued
functioning of your university. If you
think something is either inefficient or fundamentally wrong with the processes
for which you now find yourself responsible, do something about it. Of course, you could shrug your shoulders and
bemoan your misfortune for having taken on this particular admin role at this
particular time. Ultimately though, universities don’t do things, people
do. Don’t expect some faceless “other”
whether it is the faculty, the university centre, IT or even senior management
to sort everything. Instead, recognise that you might be best placed to make a
difference. Yes, your computer systems may still operate on punch cards. Yes,
the governance structure may require you to get 7 people to sign off on the
most basic decisions. Yes, you wouldn’t tolerate this level of hassle from your
bank or insurance provider and you can’t believe there’s still a role for
coloured carbon copy paper. But, the more impoverished the starting point, the
easier it should be to make things even a little better. Make an active choice
to see yourself as an advocate for better processes, systems, decisions, etc.
The alternative casts you as bystander and being passive isn’t good for you,
your students or ultimately your university.
