In this book, Michael Shattock brings a career of experience of University management as Registrar of the University of Warwick to bear on the subject of successful management in universities. His role as a renowned professional in his field also made him the logical choice to head reviews of less than successful management within the university sector. His current position as Visiting Professor in the Institute of Education, University of London and Founding Joint Director of the MBA in Higher Education Management has provided the opportunity for significant research into the history of higher education as well as making a further contribution to university management internationally.
Managing Successful Universities is set in the context of the UK higher education environment, and it draws substantially on the experience within the UK higher education sector in the period 1980 to 2002. That period in the UK saw a multitude of changes from a relatively mechanistic approach by government to the funding and management of universities to a more demanding and interventionist approach. The more interventionist approach had been accompanied by a reduction in the government contribution to university costs. The period also covers the introduction of quality assurance mechanisms and the research assessment exercises in the increased scrutiny of the activities of the universities. It also covers a period of increased participation rates and significantly increased focus on consumer issues in the UK and the student, as consumer, has been no exception. In view of the very similar trends in other jurisdictions, this book contains discussion, observations and views that are much more widely applicable than their source in the UK. One of the strengths of the Shattock's base in the UK is the comprehensive data collected that is publicly available through the UK Higher Education Statistics Agency. This source of data has enabled research and comparison between institutions over time and provides a robust base for the author. The book is, broadly speaking, in two parts. The first part consists of the distilled lessons of Shattock's extensive experience and his research in university management. This produces a set of considerations for the internal management of the university to enable a successful university. The final four chapters focus more on how the university looks to the external observer and draws heavily on case studies of universities where the author played a major role.
In his Introduction, Shattock outlines the policy environment and its development that has guided higher education in the UK over a period of three decades. The current UK policy direction favours “differentiation” among institutions, a direction now also prominent in the Australian higher education policy environment. The opening chapter of the book tackles the issue of what constitutes a successful University. He traces the period until the 1980s where success was more defined by institutional assertion than by reference to any evidence base. The complexity inherent in evidence‐based measures of success is acknowledged and the difficulty arising from the complexity of comparison has given rise to the development of various “league tables” that are used to fill the gap and inform the many publics who are trying to distinguish between the many institutions and what they offer. The research assessment exercises have provided a number of characteristics of research success. These have presented snapshots of all institutions at a single point in time. However, for teaching quality, the staged nature of the process and outcomes make the comparison much less comprehensive for teaching quality success than for research assessment success, as only the institutions that have been assessed can have current results for teaching quality success. The chapter goes on to examine the characteristics that may influence success, for example, the location, time elapsed since establishment and the wealth of the institution. Good teaching and high research reputation usually occur together and good management can enable success in universities. The chapter concludes on the encouraging note that more recently established universities have entered the “top tier” both in the UK and USA and that the “top tier” has been increasing in size in both jurisdictions.
Moving on to strategic planning, Shattock traces the changes in the imperatives driving universities and contrasts the “administration model” of an earlier era where all that universities had to do was to respond appropriately to government expansions of the system with the current environment where “agility” and short lines of communication create the responsive institution that is able to capitalise on opportunities and thereby prosper. The requirement is for leadership throughout the organisation and structures that encourage strong, healthy debate in an environment that is ambitious for success. Strong and vibrant institutions, according to Shattock, can speed up decision‐making and manage risks, whilst weak institutions will slide more slowly than in the private sector. Good strategic management can enable university success, whilst an outdated approach to strategic management in a university will increase the disadvantage the university suffers.
The new environment for university strategic management has been accompanied by a much more complex and diverse financial management system. Shattock asserts that modern strategic management must be resource led and expenditures must focus on the delivery of strategic priorities. In their quest to create new funding sources to compensate for reductions in government funding, universities have increasingly diversified their income streams and the solutions vary from the levying of overseas student fees to the use of university facilities for commercial purposes and at commercial rates. Shattock advocates the use of reliable financial management systems that enable regular income and expenditure review and shortfalls in income and overruns in expenditure must be detected and acted upon, so that the approach to finance becomes common across academic and non‐academic units. In that way, stability of financial circumstances of the university can contribute to institutional success and enable the institution to obtain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
The discussion of what a successful university is and how strategic and financial management can contribute to the achievement of success leads on to the nature of organisation and academic and administrative staff in successful universities. Shattock draws on examples from the industrial environment in his discussion of centralisation and devolution of decision‐making. In this discussion, the organisational structure, methods and terms of appointment of key staff and the influence of organisational culture are all incorporated. The level of devolution of decision‐making may also be influenced by information technology and management systems' capability to provide accurate data and information, to the level of detail required to support a successful university. The dangers of changing organisational structures and decision‐making without aligning the supporting infrastructure are highlighted and illustrated with case study examples. This leads on to a discussion of collegiality and leadership in successful universities. Drawing on the study of high technology firms dominated by professionals, collegiality and participative management are more prominent than a hierarchical management style. The discussion of leadership argues the case strongly for leadership at all levels of the successful university, from senior management through to leaders of faculties, departments and research groups. The presence of leadership at all levels of the organisation also requires short communication lines, the availability of appropriate data and information, and transparency of both information and decision making.
Organisational structure and culture then lead on to the issue of university governance. The starting point is that good governance can contribute to the success of a university, but cannot guarantee it because governance is a component of a successful university. Stress is also placed on the need for a “system of governance” that encompasses the top bodies of the university and the faculty and department levels of activity. Good governance must be apparent all levels in a way that encourages participation and enables the right results to be achieved while enjoying the confidence of all staff. The aim is to enable all components of the university contribute to and benefits from the outcomes of a successful university.
The changing nature of the university, from an institution devoted to teaching and research, to a much more diversified entity that engages with the local community, serves an important role in economic development of its region, and may have science or technology parks and spin‐off companies, creates an institution that is much more complex and multi‐faceted. This changes the risk profile of the university on one hand, and enables other, now more necessary, income streams to complement teaching and research derived income. However, all of the activities must be managed within the context of the university's overall strategy focused on a successful university.
The final four chapters look to the demands on successful universities in a very competitive environment. The first of these, Chapter 7, draws parallels with the business enterprise, and the response to competition in that environment. It begins with consideration of “branding”, and the role that branding may play in the, now various, markets in which the university competes. Underlying this chapter is the question of why one should build a successful university if nobody knows about it and it provides no competitive advantage? The positive effects of branding in the case of a successful university, impact on fundraising, interactions with industry, commerce and public sector bodies, as well as in undergraduate and postgraduate recruitment, and in the fiercely competitive overseas student market. Linked to the idea of institutional branding is the notion of institutional ambition, where the mechanisms to achieve ambitions are considered, including recruitment and restructuring for a successful university.
The next two chapters look at the barriers to the development of the entrepreneurial university, and recovery in failing or declining universities. These chapters draw heavily on the literature of the corporate world and examples from Shattock's extensive experience in university management at Warwick and other institutions where he formed part of an external intervention in an institution that had been experiencing difficulty. The final chapter draws together the characteristics of the successful university, considers what is required to produce sustained success, and identifies what is referred to as a “strengthened steering core”: efficient and effective administration and alignment of all functions of the diversified institution to the strategy for success in the core activities of teaching and research.
The comprehensive nature of this book provides a very useful text that will be of benefit to readers at all levels of the academic institution, not just the top management group. It provides insights for academics and administrators, department heads and research group leaders, registrars and administrative officers, since it takes a systemic view of the university and provides insights into contributions to the successful university for all functional areas.
