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Are we all committed to being a leading global university by 2035? Do we fully understand the changes necessary to achieve excellence?\u202f Are we ready to take the next step up? Are we going on the same journey altogether? These are some of the questions we must ask ourselves as we think about what it means to be \u2018one university\u2019 as part of the University of Manchester\u2019s strategy for the next decade and beyond.\u202f<\/p>\n
If a one university approach is critical to achieve our ambition, what do we mean by such an approach?\u202f If we want to mobilise resources across the organisation, how do university-wide investments sit alongside local ones?\u202f How does a seamless service manage local specific needs? How do we ensure all staff feel like they belong and can contribute? How do we foster empower people, foster collaboration and drive innovation across boundaries?\u202f How do we realise our collective capacity at scale?\u202f<\/p>\n
The world in 2035 will be different of course. We cannot really predict what it will be like.\u202f We can hope that current global geo-political tensions have been reduced.\u202f We might hope for economic prosperity. We can hope that everyone enjoys good health. We can hope that the anger around immigration has been dissipated.\u202f We can hope we have confronted the challenges of climate change.\u202f This might be our preferred future. The key will be to shape this future.\u202f\u202f<\/p>\n
\nIf we want the world to be a better place, we will want higher education to have played a critical role in getting there.\u202f If the world is going to be different, higher education will need to be different too.\u202f<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
We will need an environment which fosters rigorous and relevant interdisciplinary research with global impact, focused on the most pressing issues of the day.\u202f It would be important to contribute to economic regeneration, innovation, growth and productivity, for example.\u202f<\/p>\n
We will need to offer a highly attractive education experience, delivered in flexible ways, to an increasingly diverse global student population. We will want to nurture socially responsible global leaders.\u202f To deliver on research and teaching excellence, we will need great professional services, powered by Al and other new IT, delivered efficiently and effectively. We will need to fund all the collective investments required. This infrastructure will create the conditions for success.\u202f\u202f\u202f<\/p>\n
Three potential worlds\u202f<\/h2>\n
In this section, we outline three potential worlds, not necessarily as solutions, but as prompts to encourage you to explore and reflect on what is possible and desirable. While there are distinct features in each, there are also significant overlaps and complementary characteristics. So, do not be afraid to mix and match.\u202f\u202f<\/p>\n
It may be our preferred model will feature elements of all three and others that we have not yet considered. It is up to us to decide.\u202f What resonates with you? What is missing? What would it feel like to colleagues in these and other possible worlds?\u202f<\/p>\n
World 1: Consistent policies and processes\u202f<\/h3>\n
A future in which the focus of our one university effort is about creating consistent ways of doing things and reducing complexity.\u202f It\u2019s about keeping things simple and easy and reducing unnecessary tasks for us all too.\u202f A culture perhaps in which consistency does not undermine identity or ignore local context.\u202f<\/p>\n
\n
- We retain our current organisational model, but we adopt a new mindset and work consistently across our university to adopt the one best way of doing things.\u202f\u202f<\/li>\n
- Cross-functional teams deliver on shared objectives. We all know how we contribute to our ambitions and we do not recognise any organisational or academic\u2019s split.\u202f<\/li>\n
- Simple and consistent processes to get stuff done but not a rigid one-size-fits all approach. Common practices preferred with exceptions for good reason.\u202f\u202f<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
World 2: A university without boundaries<\/h3>\n
A future where internal divides disappear and hierarchical structures fade. A culture allowing us to work seamlessly across teams with shared goals, making collaboration easier for both local and global partners.\u202f\u202f<\/p>\n
\n
- We organise our academic disciplines thematically to help us tackle global challenges in multidisciplinary ways.\u202f<\/li>\n
- Our services are designed with the needs and preferences of the end user in mind, ensuring that they are functional and accessible.\u202f<\/li>\n
- Students are involved in co-creating how we design, operate and evaluate our services, working with us as genuine partners in new and exciting ways.\u202f\u202f\u202f<\/li>\n
- We radically rethink the campus and its spaces, blending digital and physical experiences. Our operations are efficient, lean and agile with all the latest AI and IT tools.\u202f\u202f<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
World 3: Goal alignment\u202f<\/h3>\n
A future in which we do not just coalesce around few priorities as one university, but we pull the implications right through our operating model.\u202f Resources are concentrated on priorities.\u202f This implies rapid and frequent redeployment of people from skills pools for low to high-priority work. A culture perhaps in which people deploy their skills readily on a flexible and evolving basis, teams form and disband regularly, unconstrained by structures, hierarchy or history.\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f\u202f<\/p>\n
\n
- We have a relentless focus on our core goals, ensuring we genuinely implement policies and procedures when we decide to do things and not in a lot of different ways.\u202f<\/li>\n
- We are clear that students are at the heart of the delivery of all our services, and we really listen to their needs and wants.\u202f<\/li>\n
- We pay close attention to how we get things done as well as what we\u2019re doing.\u202f The journey to a destination should be challenging and enjoyable along the way too.\u202f\u202f<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
Conclusion \u2013 Becoming one university\u202f<\/h2>\n
Becoming one university has the potential to accelerate progress towards and ultimately achieve our ambitions.\u202f A call to `become more than the sum of our parts\u2019 is a bit of a clich\u00e9.\u202f We have some amazing strengths and yet we do not seem to make the best of all of them.\u202f We struggle to consistently make the most of our scale and our comprehensive range of academic\/PS activities.\u202f In other words, in not getting our act together, we are not making the best of the opportunities in front of us.\u202f<\/p>\n
\nA university is not about assets and facilities.\u202f Our university is our people and, only by coming together, can we hope to achieve our collective ambitions.\u202f<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
The world of 2035 will be very different.\u202f We can be shaped by it, or we can take the initiative and shape the world.\u202f Our university has been around for 200 years.\u202f We are its stewards.\u202f We must hand it over to our successors in good health.\u202f How do you want our university to look and feel? Tell us \u2013 Manchester 2035 is about all of us.\u202f\u202f\u202f<\/p>\n
Get involved\u202f<\/h2>\n
We need your help to become one university. Visit our Manchester 2035 web page<\/a> to book onto a workshop (in person or online) and share your views through online feedback.\u202fYou can also leave a comment below \u2013 all comments will be captured within the overall feedback we are collating.<\/p>\n
Professor Fiona Devine, Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities<\/strong><\/p>\n
Patrick Hackett, Registrar, Secretary and Chief Operating Officer<\/strong><\/p>\n
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Related<\/h1>\n
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<\/div><\/div><\/div>Carol Prokopyszyn and Martin Schr\u00f6der - Manchester 2035: Funding a world-class university\u202f<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
<\/div>Becoming one university \u2013 a staff perspective: Jennie Blake, Siobhan Cartwright and Steve Jones<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
<\/div>Colette Fagan and Sarah Sharples: Making the Leap: Accelerating the path from research excellence to...<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=”Subscribe” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”et_pb_widget_area_3″ locked=”on” \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”sidebar-1″ show_border=”off” locked=”on” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Exploring the critical questions underpinning what it means to be \u2018one university\u2019 and inviting you to co-create the details of the University\u2019s strategy for the next decade.\u202f <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":3957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"[et_pb_section bb_built=\"1\" fullwidth=\"off\" specialty=\"on\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"][et_pb_column type=\"2_3\" specialty_columns=\"4\"][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=\"Row\"][et_pb_column_inner type=\"4_4\" saved_specialty_column_type=\"2_3\"][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" featured_placement=\"above\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"]\r\n\r\n
When I\u2019m out and about meeting staff I hear much debate about the why, what, when and how of change in our University. I wanted to share my thoughts on this often contentious topic \u2013 and hear your views too.<\/p>
Early in 2020 we will launch our University\u2019s new vision and strategic plan \u2013 Our future. In order to fulfil Our future we need to ensure that we are in a financially sustainable position so that we have the funds to invest in the new staff, facilities and infrastructure which will be needed to bring our plans to life.<\/p>
Our Financial Statements<\/a> for 2018\/19, which have been published following approval by the Board of Governors, confirm that more than 95% of our \u00a31.1bn income is spent on our core goals - on our staff and our students - to deliver research, education and social responsibility; with the remainder invested in the long term sustainability of our University. You can find a summary<\/a> of the Financial Statements on StaffNet.<\/p>
However, this is a testing time for UK universities, due to the many external factors that have an impact on us - current home tuition fees are falling in real terms, whilst our costs (not just pay but non-pay too) are increasing. There are further and even greater tuition fee funding risks outlined in General Election manifestos as well as a range of Brexit-related risks that could affect our operations. The Office for Students (OfS) demands that we demonstrate both value for money for our students and our financial sustainability (in the sense of being able to invest to deliver our ambitious strategy, rather than survival). There are, of course, also ongoing unresolved national issues around pay and the continuing challenges around funding pensions in the higher education sector.<\/p>
Our Financial Statements show an improved operating surplus (3.7% of income compared to \u00a324.7m (2.3%) in 2017\/18), with a rise in income from tuition fees, education contracts and research. As I mentioned earlier, we re-invest the surplus we achieve each year in activity in line with our strategy. Recently our funds have been used to create some new academic and Professional Services posts; to invest in key infrastructure including IT; to invest in some new buildings like our student accommodation at Unsworth Park; to improve the student experience by funding more full-time Residential Life staff and to upgrade a range of buildings and research and teaching spaces and resources. Increasingly it is also invested in environmental sustainability and meeting our ambitious carbon targets. So even when we are making difficult decisions in some parts of the University we continue to invest our surplus.<\/p>
Whilst we have reported an operating surplus, our Board of Governors expects us to deliver a much larger surplus than this (at least 5%) if we are to be sustainable in the long-term.
Improving our financial performance will help to deliver our ambitious future plans, but we must also increase our capacity to create the funds and time to invest in our core goals. One of the ways we can do this is by changing what we do and how we do things.<\/p>Our strategic change programme (including IT Modernisation<\/a>, the Student Experience Programme<\/a>, and the Research Lifecycle Programme<\/a>), alongside our continuous improvement plans, will ensure that we create the financial headroom to invest in people and facilities. The strategic change programme will also enable us to embrace new technologies and new ways of doing things that better support all our staff and students to be the best that they can be.<\/p>
Yes, this means that some individual roles will change. New roles (some that we haven\u2019t yet identified) will be created and some roles will no longer be required. I appreciate that this will cause some uncertainty and where that is the case we will do everything we can to support staff, but the alternative is that we never change anything. If we fail to take advantage of advances in technology and develop more joined-up ways of working we will ultimately find ourselves outdated in the eyes of future students, funders and other stakeholders. Staff want to work for a progressive and successful institution, of which they can be proud. This means we cannot stand still.<\/p>
When I talk to staff and students I often hear their frustrations about how difficult it be can be to get some straightforward things done, grappling with paper-based, manual and repetitive processes, on outdated systems and infrastructure, all of which serves to increase staff workloads. Everyone wants to do a good job, but regularly feel that our world-class status is earned in spite of our internal systems and processes, not because of them.<\/p>
To deliver our new vision and strategic plan we will need to embrace new opportunities and face challenges with courage and determination. That will sometimes mean we have to make tough decisions and no-one is claiming it will be easy or that mistakes will not be made along the way. But where we do have tough choices to make we will commit to implementing changes fairly and with compassion to support the wellbeing of all our colleagues.<\/p>\r\n\r\n[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" prev_text=\"Previous\" next_text=\"Next\" in_same_term=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" custom_button=\"on\" button_text_color=\"#ffffff\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text admin_label=\"Related posts\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" locked=\"on\"]\r\n\r\n
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