Following Council approval for the restructure in January, the Strategy Implementation Team has been laying the foundations for the change process. The team’s aim is to deliver the new Faculty structure with minimal disruption to our staff and students before and after the changeover date of 1 August 2018.
This is the first in a series of regular updates on the progress of the Faculty restructure for our staff and student communities. Each time we publish an update, a link will also be sent to senior managers and our colleagues at SUSU so they can facilitate sharing of this information within their own departments and networks, as appropriate.
Why change our Faculty structure?
The most important benefit of this restructure will be our improved effectiveness. In simple terms, we’ll be better at getting things done; the reduction of unnecessary complexity and duplication will make working life more rewarding for each of us and as an organisation, we’ll be better placed to deliver a world-class student experience in every area of the University.
Managing the change
A programme of work (known as the Wellington programme) has been established to manage these changes; the work is underway with colleagues in both Faculties and Professional Services and is likely to continue into 2019. The work streams within the programme are:
- Organisational Design and People
- The Academic Student Journey
- Systems and Processes
- Estates and Infrastructure
- Finance
- Communications and Marketing
- Governance and Legal
The objectives of each of these work streams can be found here.
Governance and resources
- The UEB 10-Year Plan Board is overseeing the restructure.
- Helen Everest, Head of Strategy Implementation, is managing the programme.
- Professor Mandy Fader (Pro Vice-Chancellor for internal partnerships) and Ian Dunn (Chief Operating Officer) are leading the changes from an academic and professional services perspective, respectively.
- Project Managers, HR Change Managers and other resources from across the University have been assigned to support this important work.
- A staff communications network has recently been formed by Internal Communications, with communications representatives from all Faculties and from key professional services. This network of colleagues will provide an important sounding board and feedback channel to support our change communications.
What has happened so far?
Organisational Design and People:
- A key area of immediate focus after the initial approval of the restructure was on developing the details of the Faculty sub-structures. In the first instance this was about deciding which subject areas will be Schools. A proposal for the school structure was approved by University Executive Board on 29 January. It was subsequently approved by Senate on 14 February and will be considered by Council on 14 March.
- Work is underway to look at the new Faculty structures, review role descriptors and agree the principles and approach for appointing the key Faculty roles. These currently include:
- Associate Dean
- Head of School
- Faculty Manager
- Head of Faculty Finance
- Faculty Academic Registrar
- Executive Assistant/Officer
- We will be inviting expressions of interest for the Associate Dean roles during March.
- An Organisational Design working group, comprising University Executive Board members, has been established to ensure appropriate consultation and engagement.
- An international recruitment search for the Dean of Medicine is underway. This means the academic structure in Medicine will remain unchanged for the time being.
Academic Student Journey:
- The work stream has been structured into two strands: Student Contact and Quality & Governance.
- A small working group has been looking at educational governance and responsibilities with a view to capturing the key activities required to deliver a quality education and identify where accountability should lie. This is feeding into the organisational design work stream and helping to inform the development of role descriptors for education roles.
Systems and Processes:
- Colleagues have been developing an understanding of the impact of the changes on our strategic IT systems and the underlying infrastructure. Solutions for delivering the required changes are being investigated and risks are being highlighted.
- Applications and tools which depend upon data feeds from these strategic systems are also being analysed to determine the impact of any changes.
Estates:
- The intention is to minimise the moves which take place as a result of the restructure.
- An audit of University signage that might need updating is currently underway.
Engagement:
- Deans have held meetings in their Faculties to enable colleagues to ask questions about the restructure.
- Workshops have taken place with Executive Directors of Professional Services and their senior teams to understand the impact the changes will have on systems and procedures in their respective areas.
- The Vice-Chancellor and other senior executives have participated in a number of face to face meetings with individuals and groups of colleagues and students from several areas in the University.
- A timeline and communications plan has been developed, to ensure that staff are kept informed of progress and what the restructure might mean for them.
- We will be talking to our recognised trade unions, providing regular updates and consulting with them where appropriate.
Other activity
- There is work ongoing to identify whether any amendments are required to legal contracts which refer to the titles of our current Faculties.
- Necessary changes to the University Calendar are being identified as the work progresses.
Contact points
If you have questions about the Faculty restructure, please email: [email protected]. This mailbox is managed by colleagues in the Strategy Implementation Team.
If you would like to contact a member of the executive team about the restructure, please email Professor Mandy Fader ([email protected]) if you are a member of academic staff, or Ian Dunn ([email protected]) if you are a member of professional services staff.
Professor Mandy Fader and Ian Dunn
Please note: During the change programme there may be information that is sensitive for some external audiences or is considered commercial in confidence. In these cases, the information will be published securely behind staff log-in, on the SharePoint site.
To meet our commitment to transparency with our student community, wherever possible this information will be shared with the Students’ Union President and sabbatical officers.
