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In late January 2014, the senior management team appointed an expert group to perform an internal analysis of problems at Aarhus University. The report has now been released.
2014.06.02 |
In late January 2014, the senior management team appointed an expert group to perform an internal analysis of problems at Aarhus University. The decision to appoint an expert group was made on the background of the discussions and problem that have been associated with the reorganisation of the university that took place in the wake of the academic development process in 2011.
The objective of the analysis is to identify significant problems in order to provide a solid basis for the senior management team’s decisions on changes in the administrative and organisational area.
Issues related to accessible management, the inclusion of staff and students in decision-making and administrative support were the primary focus of the problem analysis.
The expert group has conducted interviews with a number of focus groups that have included students, employees and managers at the university. Interviews with all department heads were also conducted, and all students and employees were asked to complete a questionnaire.
Even given that the objective of the expert group’s work was defined as identifying the extent and degree of problems at the university, the amount of ‘constructive criticism’ contributed by all is striking. Students and all staff groups have demonstrated a major commitment to and engagement in improving conditions at Aarhus University.
In this connection, is important to emphasise that the university has undergone major changes. Some of these changes have been triggered by external conditions, while others have resulted from the academic development process. The 2011 mergers created a new Aarhus University, and maintaining the status quo was not an option. Rethinking the university - including its academic and administrative organisation - was a necessity.
Aarhus University is a large organisation with an extensive portfolio of activities related to teaching, research and public sector consultancy. At the same time, the university is a geographically dispersed organisation with activities on 19 campuses. Variation in the extent to which the different parts of the university are affected by these changes is therefore to be expected. For this reason, it would be misleading to describe the effects or evaluations of the change process in uniform terms.
The expert panel’s analysis identifies centralisation and standardisation as common denominators of the university’s problems in relation to accessible management, inclusion and administrative support.
There has been extensive centralisation, and great emphasis has been placed on standardisation, joint initiatives and the presentation of the university as a unified whole. The survey shows that the university’s employees have not accepted this strategy and the initiatives derived from it as the best responses to the challenges the university faces. The change process is perceived as the management’s project, and the university’s employees feel very little sense sense of ownership over it. As a consequence of centralisation and standardisation, it has been difficult to exploit the the university’s considerable diversity as a strength, especially in relation to campuses outside Aarhus. Insufficient space has been allowed for the expression and development of professional, academic and functional differences.
Under the University Act, the managerial structure of Danish universities is hierarchical. But at the same time, the Act places crucial emphasis on the importance of student and employee inclusion and co-determination. The expert group’s survey reveals that employees and students at Aarhus University feel that the university only honours this requirement to a very limited extent, and this leads to a sense of powerlessness and frustration at all levels of the organisation. A different unrelated survey indicates that a lack of student and employee inclusion and co-determination is a particularly serious problem at Aarhus University as compared to other Danish universities. This indicates that the problem is due in part to certain structural conditions at Aarhus University.
The survey also shows that the change process has underestimated the significance of professional identity and the factor of intrinsic motivation for both academic and technical/administrative staff members. The university’s new organisational structure has not resulted in units that are experienced as meaningful collegial groups in all areas. A number of departments have to incorporate major differences, and a large proportion of academic staff members at the departments in question do not experience the current structure to be appropriate. Presumably, this reflects the fact that meaningful shared objectives and aims have not developed.
At the same time, with the formal separation of academic and administrative staff, central, meaningful collegial networks were dissolved. This dissolution was justified with reference to an extremely narrow view of administrative quality as ‘professional specialisation’. As a consequence, the changes have taken insufficient account of the significance of ‘co-production’ involving academic and technical/administrative staff in a number of core activities.
The institutional distinction between academic and technical/administrative personnel has created a divide between the two personnel groups, and it has decisively reduced the possibility of experiencing the sense of shared ownership of shared successes. The expert group has observed considerable scepticism regarding the organisation and allocation of resources to administrative activities among employees and students. The analysis shows that there are a number of problems associated with the administration’s new structure.
According to the expert group’s survey, many employees and students agree that it is important for the university to be presented as a unified institution. At the same time, employees and students have little understanding of the current strategy. This summarises the central conclusions of the internal problem analysis. But it also reveals one possible way forward. A unified university is the product of the interplay between centrally defined visions and goals on the one hand, and strong, meaningful local units on the other hand. Through this interplay, the university’s core activities - research and public sector consultancy, education and talent development - can be strengthened - and a motivating collaboration between academic, technical and administrative competences can be created.
The report’s diagnosis of the problem points towards a number of possible solutions, all of which are aimed at decentralising power and resources within a framework of centrally determined goals and requirements and the existing overall managerial structure. The focus of the proposals is the establishment of meaningful units and strengthening identity and motivation for all staff groups. In addition, proposals to ensure that the university’s core activities receive competent, user-oriented support are also presented, including proposed changes in how decisions regarding the allocation and distribution of resources for administrative activities are to be reached.
Read a summary of the expert group’s report (in English), the report in its entirety (in Danish) and the the three background reports (in Danish) here.
Read about the next steps in the process here.