Fertilising the roots: "Service Excellence" in HE

‘A business scholar has called for the implementation of "service excellence" in higher education and urged universities to treat staff as "internal customers", not employees.’

Oh yes.

Anyone who has worked in a University has come across them. Academics that are of the opinion that the institution is there to solely facilitate their research. In a utopia, this would be the case. In realistic terms, Universities stopped being places of sole theorising long ago.

Logically a huge question comes next: what is a University for?

An incredibly difficult question quickly spins out of this one: what is the role of an Academic within a University?

The answers are the academic management’s Holy Grail – for only by discovering the quantifiable answer can we hope to survive the modernising cuts.

In a business you sign contractual agreements of employment, in an industrial environment you must fulfill certain criterion to be deemed worthy of employment. No doubt you are hired based on your talent, experience and reputation. So why are ego’s being massaged? Why are academics turned into celebrities, in their own workplace if not within the media?

We feel the need to flatter and pander to the requirements of the stereotypically narrow-minded view of the bumbling academic. That the reason they are in such demand is because they are solely focused on their one specific research area. This is what makes them great. And like the secret to growing good tomatoes, fertiliser and not terms and conditions are required.

In a sector intent on maintaining it’s noble and honour bound pursuit of ‘furthering the sum of human knowledge’, we don’t like to think of the fiscal element. Applying for research grants is a mere technicality! So we reward internally with personality, pandering, and egotistical flattery.

But what about the reward based structure? Dr Khan’s notion of greater ‘internal customer satisfaction’ is spot on. Rewards for the economically productive of academics will lead to greater unity as an institution, enhance performance and demonstrate to the wider community that HE is worth the national investment.

Student satisfaction is a crucial part of the student experience - but what about the staff experience? The two are closely linked, the more satisfied the staff are, the more likely they will work to develope engagement and satisfaction with the students.

For this to happen, we must acknowledge that the definition of a University has changed. Inexorably.

Bring it on I say.

Is jam making the future for HE?

“What’s in the jar should be what’s on the label,” says Paul Wellings, VC of Lancaster University and chair of the 1994 Group. As ever, context is key. Professor Wellings recently suggested to the Browne review that if institutions were to remove the cap on fees then they should be prepared to face fines should they fail to deliver on the student experience.

He makes a valid point. If the sector is to move to a consumer based economy, with HEI’s raising fees and focusing ever closely on publicising knowledge transfer systems, world-renowned learning environments and high quality student experience then they should be willing to expect students demanding their money back should they not be ‘satisfied’.

Similar to a warrantee on an electrical item (‘If you aren’t fully satisfied with this product…’), how can we regulate a system where degrees are merely products for progression in life? Where STEM subjects are prioritised and REF frameworks are adhered to. Creating a series of guarantees from an institution to the student body at large is the only way to achieve parity.

But the confidence in the unlimited cap system could still be lacking. The only way that this can rectified, in my opinion, is to have a system for concerns to be facilitated independently. Some form of national regulatory framework for scrutiny must be in place to ensure quality control.

Academic purists will abhor this move, arguing that external scrutiny is a destructive force within HEI's. That researchers should be allowed to run free with creativity leading the way in the field of innovation. In a sensitive marketplace economy we cannot have different rules for different groups of people. If undergraduate students are expected to pay the earth for higher education with no guarantees; then researchers must also expect to have to justify their spending within the Research Excellence Framework.

We need independent quality control to restore faith in the system. Or prepare for the consequences. I for one quite like jam...

Report on Prof Wellings submission