Strategic Development of Small to Medium Sized HE Institutions

Professor Alan Godfrey, Assistant Principal, University of Paisley

What is a University? 

Is it simply a collection of buildings? A group of people?  Is it a service industry? In many situations universities are striving to become the latter. Fundamentally, a university is about the creation of knowledge and the transfer of that knowledge to a whole range of people and organisations. That knowledge transfer aspect is very important and the knowledge has to be transferred to a range of what we could call ‘clients’ or ‘customers’. In this way there are aspects of a service industry within the concept of a university.  Therefore, at a fundamental level, a university is about the creation and transfer of knowledge.  A large part of knowledge transfer is through the learning and teaching of students.  This is clearly very important, however in addition it is also important that through research Universities create new knowledge and transfer it to government, industry, and the commercial sector.  In the United Kingdom 5 or 10 years ago the thought of a University being a service industry would have been a difficult concept to grasp. In Scotland especially, this concept would have been very challenging, as higher education was very much an elitist system available to only a small percentage of the population and very much based upon a student’s own background. If a student came from a middle or high class background in society they could afford to go to university but if they came from the lower classes it was much more difficult.  This outmoded situation has now been changed, bringing forth an interesting replacement.

The Higher Education Environment

So what about the higher education environment? Are we a global business? It can be argued that we are. Whether an institution is small, medium or large, the world is such a small place now that it is critically important that institutions think internationally. They need to consider at all levels:  ‘locally, nationally and internationally what can we do?’  The institution must think like any business. With some universities the business analogy sits a bit uncomfortably, however it is still important to have this viewpoint.  Like any business we must ask the fundamental question: ‘who are our customers?’ A number of these customers have already been identified above. Many previous speakers have already touched upon the critical issues of finance and funding; the important thing for institutions is to think creatively on this topic. Progressive institutions cannot simply rely on the government to fund massive expansions in education, as it is unlikely to happen in any country on the scale required because no country can really afford that level of investment funded by the taxpayer. So Universities must start to behave like business and must start to think like business. How can they respond to the market? By thinking creatively: ‘how can we expand our resources or finance our resource needs?’

Services are increasingly mobile. Learning can be taken across boundaries. The globe is shrinking; therefore higher education has to compete in the global market.  A student can opt to study almost anywhere in the world. Research and knowledge transfer is critically important so that a generation of new knowledge is of international quality. To be a true university, it is fundamental that we conduct research, maybe different levels of research for different universities. We cannot just be teaching, we must be creating knowledge as well as transferring that knowledge.

There are many changes taking place with e-learning and the facility for selling education across the world. Research into how learning and teaching are changing has shown that increasingly, students have had to become independent learners. This has been a challenge for many students, particularly those coming out of the school environment and transferring into the higher education environment.  It is therefore very important to recognise that the students have to learn how to learn. It’s a partnership between staff, faculty and the students themselves, these skills must be developed.  In addition, the characteristics of students are clearly very important.

How does a small or medium sized institution set itself up in this very competitive environment?  The University of Paisley believes that it is all about who we are, what are our core values and purposes? What is our reason for being? Why do we exist? Why do we survive and prosper as an organisation? We have to clarify quite clearly what we see as our mission. What do we want to achieve? What can we deliver in terms of teaching and learning? To what extent can we compete with domestic and international learning, teaching, and research agendas?

It is good to consider, ‘what do your students or employers of your graduates think?’ Professor Sun identified excellent results and responses from employers very happy with the quality of graduates moving into employment.  This is very important because in a market economy the customer determines the quality. An institution does not set up a centre of excellence; only the customer can identify it from its qualities.

Diversification is clearly important, an institution must distinguish itself in the market to make itself different from the competition.  It is appropriate to consider it a competitive market even though it’s a public education market in many countries.

Branding is also very important.  This does not just mean a nice logo or a badge.  These things are part of branding, however branding comes from inside the institution. Brand quality and what the institution stands for, mission and values, comes from the staff.  Buildings can exist anywhere, but staff is what is really important for the actual product that sells. Internal communication is really important, by talking with, and developing staff, an organisation and make sure that everybody is going in the same direction and understanding what is required as part of the institution’s values.

It is important to remember that leaders of universities do not have all the answers; it is not always a top down process.  University leaders should encourage all staff to consider the problems that are faced by the institution.  This will encourage staff to have innovative and entrepreneurial ideas.  With more people considering an issue, many different ideas can be brought to the table for consideration.

Size Matters!

No matter what size the institution is there will always be challenges, however it is clear that the size of the organisation does bring differing issues to bear. 

Large organisations have many advantages, mainly related to economies of scale. They have the ability to attract greater funding and absorb costs.  However, they must also deal with significant overheads and a lack of flexibility.  Cultural issues affect large institutions.  Sub-organisations are often created, each having their own means of controlling and managing their own resources.  This can lead to many difficulties when trying to manage and direct the organisation as a whole.

Small to medium sized organisations have the advantage of being able to adapt quickly to change, generating a more visible team spirit.  Communication is also more straightforward, requiring a small infrastructure.  However, with a small to medium sized organisation it is inevitable that there will be funding challenges, and difficulties taking advantage of the economies of scale.

Large institutions have often been described as large oil tankers, having a huge capacity but very difficult to stop and change direction.  Small institutions could be described as a speedboat, very quick and manoeuvrable, easy to react to situations, but lacking a large amount of storage space.

University of Paisley’s Strategy

Critically important to the University of Paisley and other medium sized universities in Scotland is an understanding of the education market.  A scan of the market enables institutions to look at local, nation and global challenges and opportunities that are to be faced.  The strength of an institution comes from carrying out detailed environment analysis on a regular basis.  It is important to share this analysis with staff enabling them to operate as a team. In a smaller sized institution is easier to cultivate a team spirit, making things seem more achievable. In order to establish a high-achieving  University, a ‘can do’ attitude is required.  In order to keep it going, communication is required.  Communication does not mean an autocratic attitude with leaders saying I want it ‘my way it or no way’.  Leaders need to listen to many different ideas and take the best ones forward.  This is essential for the development of innovative strategies.  The university recognises that it is a small to medium sized institution; as such it is taking advantage of its ability to quickly change direction and compete within local and global markets.

A terrifying statistic in Scotland is that there is a massive decline in the number of students now studying at high school so by 2008 the student market will plummet. In response to a market scan, the University of Paisley looked at opportunities and developed creative strategies.  In order to react to this future massive fall in market, a regional approach was adopted. Currently the university has 3 existing campuses and is about to add a fourth by merging with another institution. This strategy will give the university a market of 29 % of the population of Scotland. The university’s response to the market demand situation is partnership working, important locally, important nationally, important internationally. Identifying niche markets will help the university to compensate with the fall in the number of school leavers.  Being innovative has allowed the university to adapt quickly to political agendas and policies, which views bringing as many people as possible into the education system as important.  The university is trying to widen its participation, bringing in older students and part-time students.  It targets students direct from school and also those who are currently working and wish to enhance their qualifications.

The university is using a ‘hub and spoke’ model with the three campuses being the ‘hubs’ building partnerships with local further education colleges, jointly delivering programs, franchising programs to the colleges, articulating students to university after they finish a college course, etc.  There is a whole range of partnership opportunities. The campus in the south of the country, Dumfries, is an example of this innovative approach.  In Dumfries the University of Paisley is working in partnership with two other education establishments to jointly operate the campus.

Another aspect is the social aspect; small institutions can react quickly to social agendas. One of the best examples is the excellent relationship the university has with the Chinese students who come to Paisley and obtain a degree from the University of Paisley and the Business College of Beijing Union University. It is an excellent opportunity allowing the students to experience cultural interaction, learn how to work together with other cultures. This has been in place for 6 year and it has proved to be a very powerful example for partnership working.  The university views partnerships as the way forward for small and medium sized institutions to overcome some of the barriers that exist.

Research and the creation of new knowledge is vital for any institution involved in knowledge transfer as it underpins everything that the university accomplishes.  As Scotland is a very small country it is quite difficult for any of the universities in Scotland to be internationally competitive in lots of areas of research.  To combat this difficulty, as a country we have introduced the idea of research pooling. Rather than operating in competition with each other, the universities are coming together and pooling their expertise, enabling full research excellence in certain areas.  We are very proud to be the only new university in Scotland to be invited into these pooling exercises.

Conclusion

To meet the challenges of a small to medium sized institution it is important to clearly articulate your mission and values both internally and externally.  In order to innovate it is necessary to understand your environment and define your strategic priorities, this in turn should be used to fully engage staff to enable innovative and entrepreneurial solutions to problems and opportunities.