Steve Denton ProViceChancellor Registrar and Secretary

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Steve DentonPro-Vice-ChancellorRegistrar and
Secretary

• Professional administration myths, realities
  and challenges

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• or is it all about confidence and continued
  professional development?

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• when I grow up

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• Is HE administration valued?
• Do people see HE administration as a career?
• and if not

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• How do we raise the profile and value of HE
  administration?
• How do we promote HE administration as a viable
  career?
• What else can we do?

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• Definitions
• A crisis of identity?
• Are we administrators, managers or both?

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• Administration
• Broadest sense
• Registry
• HR
• Finance
• Marketing
• Estates and Facilities
• Student Services
• Faculties, Schools, Corporate

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• Oxford English Dictionary
• Noun Administration
• the organisation and running of a business or
  system

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• Manage
• Verb
• be in charge of
• supervise
• administer and regulate
• succeed despite difficulties

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• Professional
• Adjective
• engaged in activity as a professional
  occupation rather than as an amateur
• competent
• Noun
• A person having competence in a particular
  activity

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• So we are professional administrators and
  managers
• competence (suggesting ability and skill)
• organisation and running of a business/system
• administer and regulate
• (some not all of us) in charge of or supervise

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• Professional Administration suggested
  definition
• Those who
• attract and recruit students, and support them
  in their learning and research and in their
  experience as a student
• support staff in the delivery of teaching,
  learning and research
• provide assurance to governors and external
  stakeholders on the organisation and running of
  Universities.

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• The value of HE administration
• Value can be derived from
• Heritage
• Competence
• Confidence
• Promotion.

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• Heritage
• The lessons of history of the administration at
  Cambridge
• Cambridge established 1209
• Administration established to support academia
  1226

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• Chancellor/Vice-Chancellor/Bedells/ Chaplains
• System to identify/authenticate persons to whom
  degrees had been granted through enrolment with a
  licensed master.
• System to mark progress by admission (graduation)
  to different grades/degrees of membership.
• Established authorities to keep accounts,
  moderate examination and supervise.

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• 1506 Robert Hobys, First Registrary
• Responsible for
• Matriculation/enrolment
• Admission to degrees
• Record decisions of regent masters (teaching
  bodies)
• Adoption of statutes
• From which we can establish that as a profession,
  we have been around a long time, and our role was
  seen as a necessary condition for the success of
  institutions.

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• Why is focus on competence important?
• So that we have confident individuals who have
  and can work across disciplines, at all levels,
  within and between institutions.
• Developing a rounded individual
• (Ref PG Cert)
• Skills (key skills/generic skills)
• Knowledge
• Experience
• Values Code of standards/Institutional
• Reflection

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• Competence How
• Internal development opportunities
• External development opportunities (through AUA
  and others)
• but what else can we do to provide professional
  administrators with the right skills/experiences?
• Sabbaticals?
• Secondments?
• Experience of work in HE and/or other
  organisations.

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• Barriers
• CPD as a priority
• Competition between institutions
• Competition within institutions
• but
• Graduate trainees
• Secondments
• Civil Service/Local Government analogy

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• Confidence
• Confidence comes through
• self belief - tools, skills, experience
  (competence)
• the belief of others - managers, academics,
  stakeholders, family and friends
• how we portray ourselves and our achievements
  individually/collectively
• As an organisation and as institutions, we
  focus on self belief - CPD/PG Cert
• We need to do more on
• - inspiring belief in others
• - how we portray ourselves

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• What do others think?
• Non-academics
• the referee analogy
• How do we challenge these (mis) conceptions?
• The Leeds Met experience
• valuing administration
• raising the profile
• establishing as a career
• inspiring confidence

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Welcome to Leeds Met leading beyond boundaries
Thank you for your interest in Leeds Mets search
for other leaders to join our university.
Whether your future is as a dean, a professor,
an associate dean or a super-administrator, we
are looking for those who have the commitment,
attitude and talent to make a difference as we
pursue our governors vision of striving to
become a world-class regional university.
Momentum has been generated by our pioneering
regional university network, our partnerships,
the way we are transforming the landscape of
lifelong learning and the latest news of
increasing applications arising from our
distinctive 'low-charging, high impact' approach.
Please contact us if you wish to join Leeds Met
at such an exciting time.
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The Met Office is a term used, for instance, in
our governors corporate plan for the
university, which is also accessible through our
website. As the plan indicates, we are taking
every opportunity to integrate and streamline our
support services. More functions are being taken
forward in faculties. Since we are a
student-centred university, we do not refer to
administrators as the centre but rather we
regard the student experience in faculties as
central. A relatively small team is therefore all
we need to help our six faculties but everyone in
that team must be adding value by operating at a
world-class level. As the appointment of Steve
Denton to a pro-vice-chancellorship demonstrates,
we will recognise the talents of
super-administrators. As the phrase suggests, we
are looking for Met Office leaders to make a
difference to the ethos, the atmosphere, of our
university. In all cases, we are searching for
those who will, in pioneering ways and operating
beyond boundaries, help students, colleagues, the
university and our partners use our talents to
the full. Professor Simon LeeVice-ChancellorLee
ds Metropolitan University

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• How do we portray ourselves?
• As equal partners or as subservient? shared
  governance
• As competent?
• As a profession?
• As confident?
• As a group to be respected?
• Super administrators and super managers?

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• Shattock on Managing successful universities
• Founding Registrar - University of Warwick
• Many staff who work for him now in senior
  management posts in Universities and other
  organisations
• Value of administration
• Day to day management
• Role in development of policy/strategy

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• The need to be systematic, but creative and
  responsive
• Innovation/creativity in administration and
  management makes creative opportunities for
  institutions
• Management makes a difference
• The contribution of administration
• Recruitment

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• Training/Development
• Rounded sets of skills/experiences
• Creative environment
• Work should be varied, not monotonous if we are
  to recruit/retain and encourage
• Intellectual confidence
• The need to promote tolerance/ understanding
  between academics/ administrators

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• So what? What next
• We need to be confident about our identity
• We need to celebrate and promote our heritage
• We need to continue, (but pursue more
  vigorously), our training and development work
  as an organisation and within/between
  institutions

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• We should do more to establish HE
  administration as a graduate career of choice
• We should promote opportunities for
  inter/intra University working
• We need to tackle prejudices about us, not by
  moaning about it, but by what we do, our
  approach and by promotion

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• A key part of our recruitment and development
  strategy should focus on our heritage and
  'confidence', as well as competence
• We need to promote ourselves professionally,
  and consider the creation of a professional
  lobby function

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• Conclusions
• We need to be proud of what we are and what we
  do
• We need to be confident about what we are and
  what we do
• We need to promote what we are and what we do