Beyond Administration and Management The Contemporary Professional in UK Higher Education

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• Beyond Administration and Management? The
  Contemporary Professional in UK Higher Education
• Dr Celia Whitchurch
• Lecturer in Higher Education
• Institute of Education
• University of London
• c.whitchurch_at_ioe.ac.uk

Centre for Higher Education Studies
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Aims of session

• To present findings of research on changing roles
  and identities of professional staff in higher
  education (www.lfhe.ac.uk)
• To consider what it means to be a professional
  in contemporary institutions
• To provide an opportunity for participants to
  review their own roles, possible career
  directions, and the roles/careers of their staff

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Task in pairs

• Two finance managers, with essentially the same
  job description, in two different institutions,
  are talking about their interactions with their
  academic colleagues. How might you describe their
  different approaches?
• Manager 1
• A lot of the significant contact that we have
  with academic managers is in terms of how they
  manage their financial resources we have to
  have oversight of that and report to the
  requisite authorities.
• Manager 2
• we try to bridge this divide between lets
  keep the academics happy and the RAE is all
  important and developing activities
  elsewhere such as widening participation,
  regional partnership Were growing, not just in
  size, but in diversity and complexity you cant
  have a finance director who is just number
  crunching...

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Identity dispositions





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The Emergence of Third Space
Examples of Institutional Projects In Third
Space
Perimeter roles eg
Perimeter roles eg
Academic Staff
Professional Staff
Outreach/study skills Access/equity/ disabil
ity Community/ regional partnership
The Student Transitions Project eg Life and
welfare Widening participation Employability
and careers The Partnership Project eg
Regional/community development
Regeneration Business/technology
incubation The Professional Development
Project eg Academic practice Professional
practice Project management Leadership/manageme
nt development
Generalist functions (eg registry,
department/ school management) Specialist
functions (eg finance, human resources) Niche
functions (eg quality, research management
Pastoral support Teaching/ curriculum
development for non-traditional students
Links with local education providers
Teaching
Research
Third leg eg public service, enterprise
Multi-functional teams The Higher Education
Professional
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Implications of Third Space (1)

• Project- and team-working as well as
  hierarchical, line management relationships
• Lateral interactions between people of different
  levels of seniority and with different specialist
  or professional backgrounds
• Authority built on a personal, day-to-day basis,
  rather than solely via position in hierarchy or
  through specialist knowledge
• Theres no authority that you come with
• Its what you are, not what you represent
• If you solve a problem for us, well come back
  and work with you again

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Implications of Third Space(II)

• Ambiguous working conditions
• Sometimes an academic unit, sometimes an office
• Individuals self-reliant in coping with ambiguity
• Assisted by eg
• Availability of safe space in which to
  experiment
• Acquisition of academic credentials (masters,
  doctorates)
• Support of senior figure or mentor (HOA, PVC)
• Portfolio careers

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Traditional career routes(pre-1992s)





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Contemporary Career Routes
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Implications of Third Space for career
development

• Status of boundary work
• How to gain credit for this type of work in
  appraisal, promotion processes
• Risks in getting out of mainstream?
• Inappropriate reporting lines
• Importance of informal aspects of
  relationships/networks
• Just in time development

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Summing up

• A role your JD plus what you make of it
• Make use of/create opportunities
• Use secondments/exchanges/projects
• Keep your cv up to date
• Use appraisal/staff review process
• Apply for jobs (not just to get them)
• Be self reliant, take the initiative, and invest
  in yourself!

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Individual action plans

• In pairs, consider
• Strengths (things I do well)
• Weaknesses (things I could do better)
• Aspirations (what I want to do)
• Interests (things I really enjoy)
• Needs (what would help me to achieve my goals eg
  experience, development, networks)