1. +
A Changing Higher
Education Landscape in
Ireland
- the perspectives of academics
Dr. Linda Dowling-Hetherington
University College Dublin
1 OECD IMHE Conference, Paris, September 2012

2. + BACKGROUND 2
 Irish HE – the challenges
 Funding, research
 Governance, decision-making &
resource allocation
RESEARCH THEMES
 Focus on performance indicators
 Changes at UCD
 Aim of Research:
 To determine how HE change is  Role of the Academic
impacting upon academic staff
 Decision-Making &
 Case Study Collegiality
 School of Business, University
College Dublin (UCD)
 63 FT faculty / 28 interviews
 Period since appointment of new
Vice-Chancellor in 2004

3. + UCD Change Programme 3
 Pre-2004:
Aims
 Complex & fragmented organisational
structure  tobecome a
 11 faculties & 89 Depts research-
 Duplicative functions, lack of intensive
transparency in decision-making, little university
interdisciplinary collaboration
 tosupport
 Post-2004: interdisciplinary
 New Vice-Chancellor appointed research
 Organisational re-structuring
 5 Colleges & 34 Schools  excellencein
 Changes in management structures, teaching/learning
mission, curriculum and student
 Change in role expectations, experience
resource allocation process

4. Reflections of academics on the changes
+ introduced 4
 University-level changes: Reflections on the Impetus for Change
 Strategic planning  ‘Under-performing’
 Management structure
 ‘Slow response to change……a faster
 Appointment of Vice-
chain of command was needed’.
Chancellor & centralisation of
power  Need to be ‘more efficient and give more
value for money’.
 Organisational re-structuring
 Research focus Reflections on the Changes Implemented
 ‘The biggest single change has been the
 Modularisation
whole notion of governance and executive-
 Bureaucratisation style management’.
 School-level changes:
 Executive Dean Reactions & Coping Strategies
 Abolition of Departments  ‘Disengaged’, ‘disconnected’
 Reduced power of Heads of
 ‘Getting on with the job and just staying
Subject Areas out of it’.
 Reduced autonomy
 ‘Working behind closed doors’.

5. + Changing Role of the Academic 5
Reflections on the role
Research Administration of the academic
Explicit research Teaching & ‘The demands on
output Learning academics – if you want
requirements compliance/ to be a serious academic
systems – have increased
dramatically’.
Changing
Dimensions Engagement in service is
of Role ‘rewarded less and
valued less’.
Performance
The ‘largest change in
Workload Same emphasis on terms of the work itself’ is
teaching in the ‘reporting and
Workload model
performance management systems,
Work intensification information processing
No performance system….’
reviews

6. + Faculty/School Decision-Making 6
Reflections on
Pre-Change Post-Change Decision-Making
 Department  Faculty meetings Pre-Change:
meetings abolished ‘........there was a
feeling that, at the
 Heads of very least, any
Department  School meetings member of Faculty
meetings Information could say their piece
dissemination in a Faculty meeting.
 Faculty ….. at least they had a
meetings  dialogue/ voice …….’
 Self-governing decision-
 Consensus making? Post-Change:
building The School meetings
 Executive Dean are ‘pseudo
 But tensions participative entities’
evident ……. with ‘little room
for conversation’.

7. + Collegiality 7
 Before the changes
 Conflicting views
 Variations across departments
Reflections on
Collegiality Post-
 Greater day-to-day interaction
Change
 Homogeneous Faculty cohort
‘You’re increasingly
 Since the changes living in a world where
 Not as pronounced people just want to go
 Less co-operation / discussion /
into their own room,
close the door and
interaction
stay there and get on
 Declining attendance at events
with their own
(e.g. graduations) research’.
 Focus on research output
 Individualist nature of academic
life (promotions system)