We’re listening: Dr Maurizio Manuguerra, Deputy Head of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, shares insights from teaching and research staff at an Operating Plan workshop on 3 March
Last week saw the first staff engagement workshops as part of the development of a University Operating Plan 2020-2024, with the Vice-Chancellor Professor S Bruce Dowton engaging staff in broad discussions about our shared future.
The Vice-Chancellor is leading conversations in more than 30 staff and student workshops, as well as a range of team town halls, as part of engaging with the University community in developing a whole of institution operating plan.
For the Vice-Chancellor and participants from across the University – who have enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to come together for the two-hour workshops – this is a significant investment of time and effort. But the Vice-Chancellor says this investment is key to getting our Operating Plan right.
“This is about identifying challenges and collectively deciding our priorities, and we can’t do that without having these conversations together,” he says.
“Listening to staff at the first engagement workshops last week, it is clear we all share a genuine desire to do things differently. I have been very impressed with the ideas being raised by our staff community, both at the workshops and on the digital engagement platform, and I look forward to hearing more.”
Last Tuesday 3 March a workshop attended by academic and research staff saw enthusiastic discussions around the Students First, Coursework Suite and Delivery, and Focused Investment in Research priorities in the Operating Plan.
Here are some of the things members of our academic staff had to say.
Students First
“Putting students first means attracting – and retaining – quality teachers. As resources become scarce, we need to ensure our academics have the ‘breathing space’ required to devote time to teaching.”
“Many of our gaps in the student experience are related to systems or processes, like timetabling. Our systems don’t talk to each other, and often we change the system without changing the business processes around them – we have to make sure we’re doing both.”
Coursework Suite and Delivery
“In moving from a unit focus to a degree or major focus, we can learn from the success of the Gender Equity Strategy, with its combination of top-down and bottom-up work.”
“There is a strong sense that students are confused about how to navigate our units towards their degree and want a clearer view on the course and what sensible pathways and choices for them would be.”
“I see industry as a stakeholder in what we deliver in our courses. Employers are looking for broad – not deep – content knowledge, and graduates that have essential skills like teamwork and communication. We have to shift away from old methods and be open to doing things differently.”
Focused Investment in Research
“We need to get creative in developing support and incentives to help staff to form new and interesting research teams and to collaborate.”
“Focussed investment to achieve greater levels of income for research will require us to build capability across generating category 2-4 income, including partnership management and engagement with industry and philanthropy.”
You can add your voice to these topics (as well as the Ways of Working and Our People priorities) by adding or supporting an idea on the digital engagement platform.
With an additional 250 staff joining the digital platform last week and many new ideas being generated on the platform following the engagement workshops, the digital platform has been extended to Sunday 29 March to allow more staff to participate and have their say.
Back to homepage