Ebook Managing Successful Universities

"There is no truer text to the topic than Managing Successful Universities ... The second edition is a full revision in which globalisation, managing financial disjuncture and the enhancement of research performance all loom larger than before. Like its predecessor this book will be used throughout the English speaking world and beyond." Professor Simon Marginson, Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Melbourne "[This] is the manual par excellence for modern university leadership and management. In my role as a business school dean, it is by far the most useful single book I have ever read - and continue to read." Professor Mark Taylor, Dean, Warwick Business School, University of Warwick "When I began my career in university management, there was just one book on managing UK universities. Now there must be twenty or thirty but none is as comprehensive, authoritative, readable, and important as Shattock's Managing Successful Universities ... Read this valuable book and learn much from it!" David Palfreyman, Director of OXCHEPS and Bursar, New College, University of Oxford This bestselling book defines good management in a university context and how it can contribute to university success. Extensively updated to reflect political, financial and social developments since the first edition, it includes a new chapter on the management of teaching and research and gives in-depth coverage to managing retrenchment and the importance of human resource management. Drawing on the literature of management in the private sector as well as from higher education and on the experience of the author it emphasizes: The holistic characteristics of university management The need to be outward looking and entrepreneurial in management style, and The ways successful universities utilize the market to reinforce academic excellence

"Michael Shattock, former registrar of Warwick, can lay claim to having invented the serious study of university governance in Britain." Public How has university governance changed and developed over the last quarter of a century? How can people actively engaged in university governance manage the increasingly complex issues that confront them? This book addresses university governance as extending throughout an institution from the governing body to senates/academic boards and the organs of governance at faculty and departmental levels. It considers the legal structure of higher education institutions; the impact of developments in corporate governance in the private sector; the reforms in modern university governance, including in academic governance; the practicalities of managing governance, drawing on selected case studies; and the role of governance in relation to institutional performance. Whilst the primary market for the book is the United Kingdom, many of the themes addressed are of international applicability. The book provides both a practical guide for those actively involved in governing universities – lay governors, senior managers and academics – and a key scholarly text for students of higher education, managers in universities and colleges, and policy makers.

This book is about the use of evidence in the leadership and management of universities and colleges. The role of institutional self-study in establishing strategy and measuring progress is examined across the full range of institutional activities, with many worked examples. Practical guidance is also set in the context of theory about organisational learning within complex enterprises at the start of the 21st century, as well as an account of the state of the art within higher education in the UK, with some international comparisons. Because of the nature of the business – knowledge production and use –universities should be better at organisational learning than they are. This book shows how disciplined self-study can assist decision-making, general effectiveness and reputational positioning for universities and colleges. The book explores why self-study matters, the key processes and techniques, as well as what can be delivered. In addition to the internal drivers to enhance self-study capacity and practice, institutions are increasingly required to produce explicit and transparent accounts of their activities and performance to external bodies, to support marketing, to respond to multiple stakeholders and to meet external reporting and regulatory requirements. At the heart of the book is the case for the development of the university or college as a mature, self-reflective community, making full use of its analytical and other resources.

There is a comforting tale that heads of higher education institutions (HEIs) like to tell each other. "Go around your university or college," they say, "and ask the first ten people who you meet how their morale is. The response will always be 'rock-bottom.' Then ask them what they are working on. The responses will be full of life, of optimism and of enthusiasm for the task in hand." The moral of the story is that the two sets of responses don't compute; that the first is somehow unthinking and ideological, and the second unguarded and sincere. The thesis of this book is that the contradictory answers may well compute more effectively than is acknowledged: that the culture of higher education and the mesh of psychological contracts, or "deals," that make it up make much of the current discourse about happiness and unhappiness in contemporary life look simplistic and banal. In particular, the much-vaunted "science of happiness" may not have much to say to us. There is also a potential link between the Manichean discourse about morale and our wider culture's approach to happiness. Both normally deal in extremes, and much more rarely in graduations. Why is so much discourse about contemporary higher education structured around (real and imagined) unhappiness? How does this connect with the realities of life within (and just outside) the institutions? Does it matter, and, if so, what should we be doing about it? Based on historical, sociological and philosophical analysis, this book offers some answers to these questions.

It is not hard to be a research active academic, or to build a research group, or to create a research culture. Here are sensible strategies available to everyone, and that empower everyone in higher education. Seizing the opportunities, refusing to be a victim, and – most importantly – learning how the system works, are among the strategies available to anyone motivated to succeed. This book takes a radical, unstuffy look at higher education. It is of interest and relevance to anyone working in the higher education sector. Based on the authors’ research on research groups, and on their experience as Head of Department, Dean and Pro Vice-Chancellor, the book provides advice for younger academics making their way in the system, and for more senior people who need to mentor research staff, build research groups and shape research-led careers. The book provides practical advice on key aspects of research activity: getting research grants, publishing in peer-reviewed journals, and writing books. The current climate of research activity is discussed in the context of Research Assessment, and the context of ‘glittering prizes’.

What is the purpose of higher education? How do teaching and research relate? Are the intellectual purposes of higher education in need of restoration? The Enquiring University explores the ways in which teaching, research and learning are related to each other and to a wider social context, one in which ideas about the nature of the university and knowledge are changing. The book is readily accessible, drawing upon insights that emerge from a wide range of disciplines. Throughout the book, Stephen Rowland develops a conception of enquiry which can play a central role in how we are to understand academic work. It is a concept which values the academic tradition of a love for the subject, while at the same time encouraging exploration across disciplinary and other cultural boundaries. While such a notion of enquiry may seem to be under threat from many of the recent developments in higher education, this book indicates ways in which the appropriate spaces can be opened up to enhance a spirit of enquiry amongst academic staff and their students. The Enquiring University is key reading for university lecturers, those studying for higher degrees in higher education and policy makers.

"This book is an exceptional introduction to some difficult ideas. It is full of downright good advice for every academic who wants to do something practical to improve his or hers students’ learning." Paul Ramsden, Brisbane, Australia "Biggs and Tang present a unified view of university teaching that is both grounded in research and theory and replete with guidance for novice and expert instructors. The book will inspire, challenge, unsettle, and in places annoy and even infuriate its readers, but it will succeed in helping them think about how high quality teaching can contribute to high quality learning." John Kirby, Queens University, Ontario, Canada This best-selling book explains the concept of constructive alignment used in implementing outcomes-based education. Constructive alignment identifies the desired learning outcomes and helps teachers design the teaching and learning activities that will help students to achieve those outcomes, and to assess how well those outcomes have been achieved. Each chapter includes tasks that offer a 'how-to' manual to implement constructive alignment in your own teaching practices. This new edition draws on the authors' experience of consulting on the implementation of constructive alignment in Australia, Hong Kong, Ireland and Malaysia including a wider range of disciplines and teaching contexts. There is also a new section on the evaluation of constructive alignment, which is now used worldwide as a framework for good teaching and assessment, as it has been shown to: Assist university teachers who wish to improve the quality of their own teaching, their students' learning and their assessment of learning outcomes Aid staff developers in providing support for departments in line with institutional policies Provide a framework for administrators interested in quality assurance and enhancement of teaching across the whole university. The authors have also included useful web links to further material. Teaching for Quality Learning at University will be of particular interest to teachers, staff developers and administrators.

·What is the policy background to current interest in retention and student success? ·What causes students to leave institutions without completing their programmes? ·How can theory and research help institutions to encourage student success? Retention and completion rates are important measures of the performance of institutions and higher education systems. Understanding the causes of student non-completion is vital for an institution seeking to increase the chances of student success. The early chapters of this book discuss retention and student success from a public policy perspective. The later chapters concentrate on theory and research evidence, and on how these can inform institutional practices designed to enhance retention and success (particularly where students are enrolled from disadvantaged backgrounds). This book draws upon international experience, particularly from the United Kingdom, Australia, South Africa and the United States. Retention and Student Success in Higher Education is essential reading for lecturers, support staff, and senior managers in higher education institutions, and for those with a wider policy interest in these matters.