wags the dog

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wags the dog

• Laurine Hurley
• ACU Vic

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• academics
• administration
• aggravation

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Administration

• the third oldest profession??

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• We are humble functionaries
• We don't measure our success by results but by
  activity.
• Lynn Jay 1980

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• the road to hell is paved with good intentions

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• Youve got courses, students and staff? Then you
  need us!
• Let us take the trivial work from you then you
  can concentrate on teaching
• Well make a great team we complement each
  others strengths!

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• todays servant becomes tomorrows master
• HAL in 2001
• overblown sense of helping
• no conservative resolution

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the planks on which we build

• the students ultimate needs come first
• everyone acts with pure and unselfish intent
• communication (i) exists and (ii) is equally
  effective in both directions

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• our report card?

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• We are going to get some patients into St
  Edward's, eventually aren't we?
• It's possible. Certainly our present intention,
  in a year or two, probably, when the financial
  situation has eased up a bit.
• Lynn Jay 1980

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key terms

• students
• quality
• effective
• efficient
• and
• sustainable

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• good administration is essential
• underpins the entire organism...
• sadly, however, we often have the noun without
  the adjective

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a partnership
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what administration needs

• information that is
• good quality
• timely
• realistic
• transparent

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what it should provide

• information that is
• good quality
• timely
• realistic
• transparent

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what happens

• info often minimal, or absent
• mismatch b/w expectations and results
• irreversible breakdown of relations
• mistrust
• suspicion
• sabotage

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• The higher the office, the higher the level of
  paranoia
• Lynn Jay 1980

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result

• lose-lose
• positive feedback cycle
• diminishes ultimately destroys the organism

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• The three articles of Civil Service faith
• it takes longer to do things quickly,
• it's more expensive to do them cheaply and
• it's more democratic to do them in secret.
• Lynn Jay 1980

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• safety in numbers..
• growing areas in shrinking sector

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• James Hacker Who else is in this department?
• Sir Humphrey Appleby Well briefly, Sir, I am the
  Permanent Under Secretary of State, known as the
  Permanent Secretary. Woolley here is your
  Principal Private Secretary, I too have a
  Principal Private Secretary and he is the
  Principal Private Secretary to the Permanent
  Secretary. Directly responsible to me are ten
  Deputy Secretaries, 87 Under Secretaries and 219
  Assistant Secretaries. Directly responsible to
  the Principal Private Secretary are plain Private
  Secretaries, and the Prime Minister will be
  appointing two Parliamentary Under Secretaries
  and you will be appointing your own Parliamentary
  Private Secretary.
• James Hacker Do they all type? Sir Humphrey
  Appleby No. Mrs. McKay types. She's the
  secretary.
• Lynn Jay 1980

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• Twenty three thousand. In the Department for
  Administrative Affairs. Twenty three thousand
  people just for administering other
  administrators. We have to do a Times-Motion
  study, see who we can get rid of.
• We did one of those last year.
• And?
• It transpired that we needed another five hundred
  people.
• Lynn Jay 1980

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whos in charge of the asylum?
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• Since 1832 we have been gradually excluding the
  voter academic /student from government higher
  education governance.
• Lynn Jay 1980

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curriculum control by stealth (1)

• no exams outside official exam period
• official course calendar set by same

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curriculum control by stealth (2)

• exams submitted week 6 of a 10-week teaching
  period
• the exam should be written before semester
  begins and you teach to that

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we are not alone

• institutional suicide
• death by a thousand cuts

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• Eastern Europe
• emergence of quality assurance agencies
• control rather than QA is the primary goal
• Temple Billing 2003

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meanwhile in a parallel universe

• responsibility-centred management
• designed to make the budget process responsive
  to academic priorities

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