Shownotes
Institutional change is a difficult task. Many universities are exploring the importance of leadership through this change to ensure positive outcomes for students, staff and the wider community.
In the last year, the financial challenges facing universities have intensified, prompting a closer look at how to refine their missions and respond to current and future needs. Many are focusing on reviewing business models and strategic planning to navigate an evolving higher education landscape.
In this episode of The future of higher education today, our panel of experts share their insights on reasons for reviewing their strategy and offer advice for leading successful change programmes within UK higher and further education.
This is the second episode of a four-episode series in collaboration with Advance HE. It focuses on governing and leading change and transformation in the higher education sector.
Transcripts
00:04
Thank you for joining us for
00:05
the Future of Higher Education Today.
00:07
The podcast bringing people together
00:09
to talk about the biggest issues
00:11
facing universities and higher education.
00:13
A series produced by Universities UK
00:16
and Advance HE.
00:17
My name is Aaron Porter,
00:19
Associate Director (Governance) at Advance HE
00:21
and I'm hosting this four-episode series
00:23
with a focus on governing
00:25
and leading change and transformation
00:27
in the higher education sector.
00:29
Today's episode looks at the drivers
00:32
for strategic reviews
00:33
in UK further and higher education institutions.
00:36
As well as some indicators
00:38
of successful change programmes.
00:40
Joining me today for our session
00:43
is Professor Sir Steve West,
00:45
Vice-Chancellor and President
00:46
of the University of the West of England.
00:48
To be authentic
00:49
you have to be able to admit
00:50
when it's not quite working
00:53
and build the team
00:55
with determination that
00:57
is going to make sure
00:58
that you don't repeat those mistakes,
01:00
or you try and avoid them
01:01
as best you can.
01:02
Debra Gray,
01:03
Principal and CEO of Hull College.
01:06
And Trusha Lakhani,
01:07
CEO of Great Business Matters.
01:10
A review of the business model
01:12
wasn't just how do we save money,
01:13
how do we become more efficient,
01:14
how do I bank cash
01:16
to invest for staff and students?
01:18
It was also how do we position
01:19
the college as a leader in its field?
01:21
You've actually got to plan three
01:23
or four years ahead.
01:25
So, it's having the conversations
01:27
with employers for skills
01:30
and the courses
01:32
that those skills require.
01:33
I'm going to kick off
01:34
with our opening question.
01:36
And I just wondered
01:37
if they could share some thoughts on
01:39
what the circumstances are
01:41
that have led them to embark
01:43
on a strategic review of their business model
01:46
in their respective institutions?
01:48
And how that went about.
01:50
So we'll start with you, Steve.
01:52
Thanks Aaron. Great to be here.
01:54
I guess the starting place for me
01:55
was if we continued
01:57
doing what we were doing,
01:58
we would quickly hit a brick wall
02:01
in that our model, predated on,
02:05
I guess, a similar model
02:06
that we were using over the last ten,
02:08
fifteen years was running out of steam.
02:11
And that really was the focus.
02:13
We had a number of shocks around
02:16
inflation uplift not being available to us.
02:19
The international students
02:21
and reducing numbers.
02:25
But also increasing costs
02:27
within a university and complexity
02:30
within the things that we were doing,
02:32
which was becoming unmanageable.
02:34
And really those things came together
02:36
and we took the opportunity
02:38
just to reflect on our:02:42
and asked ourselves
02:45
Are we on track?
02:47
Are we likely to deliver this strategy,
02:50
or do we need to change
02:52
some of what we were doing
02:54
in light of the circumstances
02:56
that we found ourselves in?
02:58
That's a really helpful
02:59
sort of scene setter for us.
03:00
And as you say, we'll unpack
03:01
some of that detail in just a second.
03:04
Thanks, Steve.
03:05
Debra, I wonder the circumstances
03:07
for you at Hull College
03:09
and more generally across
03:10
the college sector.
03:12
It's a really interesting question.
03:15
And Hull College
03:17
is certainly a case study of why
03:20
looking long term
03:22
strategically at your business
03:23
model pays off.
03:25
The real simple answer is
03:27
we were in financial distress
03:28
and we had been subject to government intervention.
03:33
The role of the FE commissioner
03:35
and our funding bodies.
03:37
And that brings with it
03:40
a whole range of challenges
03:41
and becoming principal of a college
03:44
that's already in financial distress,
03:46
you have
03:48
a very limited number of levers at
03:50
your disposal.
03:52
But essentially,
03:53
we had found ourselves in this position
03:57
for reasons that, in theory
03:59
at least, could have been predicted
04:01
or protected against.
04:02
And I think it's very similar
04:04
to some of what we're seeing,
04:05
certainly in the
04:06
HE sector with our colleagues in HEIs.
04:09
So, we'd seen kind of overoptimistic
04:11
recruitment targets,
04:12
which meant that
04:13
potentially from September
04:15
you were already in deficit
04:16
unless your budget was absolutely spot on.
04:19
We'd probably missed opportunities
04:20
for digital transformation
04:22
and hadn't really controlled
04:24
resource management
04:26
as well as we should have done,
04:27
particularly staffing.
04:29
And I think we hadn't had the foresight
04:32
to adapt to those financial realities.
04:35
And that for us meant,
04:38
you know, we'd got declines in student numbers.
04:40
We'd got very significant
04:41
upswings in operational costs.
04:44
Utilities alone were incredibly high.
04:48
And
04:50
when I think
04:51
about those things,
04:54
that's all on the downside.
04:56
That's what triggers.
04:57
But also what's a real trigger is
04:59
how do we lead.
05:01
So the college had suffered
05:03
from this distress.
05:05
And as a result
05:05
they hadn’t led from the sector basis on anything.
05:08
So, a review of the business
05:10
model wasn't just how do we save money,
05:12
how do we become more efficient,
05:13
how do I bank cash
05:14
to invest for staff and students?
05:16
It was also
05:17
how do we position
05:17
the college as a leader in its field?
05:20
How do we take our rightful place
05:22
on the national and international stage
05:24
in AI, in digital transformation,
05:28
in student mobility,
05:30
all the things that we're really,
05:31
really good at.
05:32
So it was two pronged.
05:34
It was to control costs
05:36
to bank cash for investment
05:39
and also to place the college
05:41
really at the forefront
05:43
of what it did very well.
05:45
Trusha, if I might turn to you
05:46
and I know that you've worked
05:48
with a number of organisations,
05:49
sometimes in interim ways.
05:52
So, you might be thinking
05:53
about a number of institutions
05:54
as you offer some reflections.
05:56
But I wonder if there are any kind of
05:57
general principles
05:59
which have been have applied
06:01
successfully when you've worked with institutions
06:03
thinking about strategic reviews
06:05
of their business model.
06:06
Educational organisations are facing
06:10
financial pressures.
06:11
You know, sometimes it's
06:13
in declining enrolments.
06:16
Sometimes and
06:17
quite often, you know, it's the funding
06:20
hasn't quite reached the inflationary levels.
06:26
And there is increased competition
06:30
between institutions as well.
06:32
So, everyone's marketing
06:34
for the same level.
06:35
So, that adds to financial pressures,
06:38
whether people see it or not.
06:39
Now, when you've got financial pressures
06:41
to invest in technologies
06:43
is quite hard because you're
06:45
looking at the day to day
06:46
running rather than the growth.
06:48
So, the technological pressures
06:50
and everyone knows
06:51
that applying good technology
06:54
reduces the cost.
06:55
But before you do that,
06:56
you've actually got to spend money
06:57
in putting these things in.
06:59
So, it's ensuring
07:03
that educational institutions have the ability
07:07
or the funding to
07:09
to get the right technologies in place
07:12
for themselves.
07:13
Part of it operationally
07:15
to help them run the organisation.
07:17
And the other bit it's to help them
07:21
teach differently
07:22
to educate people differently because
07:27
organisations, especially
07:29
any educational organisation,
07:32
is multi-layered.
07:33
So, you've got to apply it
07:35
in different layers.
07:36
Employer expectations change and it's
07:39
keeping in line with them.
07:41
So, it's planning the courses.
07:43
So, you've actually got to plan three
07:45
or four years ahead.
07:47
So, it's having the conversations
07:49
with employers for skills
07:52
and the courses
07:54
that those skills require.
07:56
And it's also
07:59
linking up with the right businesses
08:01
and stakeholders as well.
08:03
So, you understand the demands
08:05
that the market is putting across
08:08
on the educational institutions.
08:11
I'm going to move the conversation
08:13
on to a related point,
08:14
but, around sort of the milestones
08:18
of success.
08:19
I think we've set out
08:21
clear reasons to make the change.
08:24
But then I wonder, were there particular performance
08:27
indicators or milestone or measures that you’ve –
08:30
that you would point to
08:31
along the way that you felt right,
08:34
we have perhaps
08:35
delivered this particular change
08:36
or made this amount of saving?
08:39
So, I go back to the strategy
08:41
and having a very clear
08:44
long term vision about
08:45
what you want to be.
08:46
If you haven't got that, then in effect,
08:49
you're just—if you're chasing the finances you end up,
08:54
frankly, salami slicing everything.
08:56
And that never is a good thing to do.
08:59
So, we set sail having a very strong
09:02
balance sheet and a real vision
09:04
of what we wanted to be.
09:06
And we classified it
09:08
under three headings.
09:09
Our purpose. What's our core purpose?
09:12
Being really clear
09:13
what our institution is about,
09:15
what it stands for, what its values are,
09:17
what we believe in. Both in respect
09:21
of our learning and teaching
09:22
and our research and innovation
09:24
and our contribution
09:25
to the civic community that we serve.
09:28
So, clarity and purpose number one.
09:31
Then secondly, we looked at our people,
09:34
both staff and students
09:35
and our external stakeholders.
09:37
And then the third thing that we had
09:39
was around place.
09:40
What do we want to say
09:42
in terms of place shaping.
09:45
And that really aligned
09:46
to the:09:48
And so we set sail on this
09:51
three years ago.
09:54
And that's the other thing that I would say.
09:56
We took action way before
10:00
we hit any financial stresses.
10:03
And that's important
10:04
because that allowed us
10:05
to get upstream in terms of some of the investments
10:08
that we needed to make
10:10
in order to shape our future.
10:12
So, what we did,
10:15
we set up a university transformation programme.
10:18
It does have a very clear leadership.
10:20
I am the executive sponsor of it.
10:23
I chair that group and every programme
10:26
and every project that we're doing
10:28
within a framework programmatic and project
10:34
transformation led by those workstreams
10:37
led by individual sponsors,
10:39
but all reporting into one board
10:41
crossing the academic space,
10:43
the research space,
10:44
and the professional services space.
10:47
And we were looking to broadly take out
10:50
15%, one-five percent of our total operating costs.
10:55
In the first year, we delivered 11 million.
10:57
Second year, 20 million.
10:59
We're now going into the third year,
11:00
which is 22 million.
11:02
and we’ve delivered on the money,
11:04
or we're delivering on the money.
11:07
But we need to do it
11:08
without breaking the university.
11:10
And that—because in the end,
11:12
we want the university
11:13
to thrive and prosper
11:15
and to continue to do more of what
11:18
we believe is the right thing
11:19
for us as an institution.
11:21
And the—one of the early pieces of work
11:24
we did was a subject readiness review.
11:27
Which was looking
11:28
at our academic portfolio, the market,
11:30
our performance and our attractiveness
11:33
and the outcomes.
11:35
And we looked back, three, four years
11:38
and then we projected forward
11:40
three or four years.
11:41
And that's giving us some KPIs
11:43
that we're now monitoring and managing.
11:44
We did the same for our research.
11:46
So, a research readiness review.
11:48
And we looked at
11:49
where have we got real strength.
11:51
Then the final piece was a professional services review,
11:54
which we've just completed, which
11:58
tipped the professional services on their head.
12:00
Why do they exist?
12:02
How do they support the core purpose?
12:05
Where are the overlaps?
12:06
Where are the bureaucracies?
12:07
And the final bit was
12:09
recognising as a university
12:11
we need to be more agile and fluid.
12:14
So, the days of having one intake a year.
12:18
Remember those days?
12:20
Whilst half the university enjoys
12:22
and would love to be in that space,
12:24
the vast majority of the world
12:26
has moved on beyond that.
12:28
And it's not unusual to have six, seven,
12:30
eight intakes a year.
12:31
So the whole university
12:33
structures and business models
12:35
have to be able to change
12:37
in order to deliver that agility.
12:40
But why is that important?
12:41
Well because that's what the market wants.
12:44
And in the end, it's best
12:46
if you can stay ahead of the market
12:48
and easily respond to it, rather than running
12:51
and trying to catch up afterwards.
12:52
So, those were the things
12:54
that the board were tracking
12:56
and wanting to understand.
12:58
And of course,
13:00
because we're doing this in live time,
13:02
what they're really interested in
13:04
is are we doing any damage
13:07
to the staff and students who are here now?
13:10
Because promising them in two,
13:12
three, four years’ time that it's going to be fantastic
13:16
doesn't cut it.
13:18
It has to be delivered now.
13:20
It's really interesting
13:22
what you've said, Steve.
13:23
And at one level,
13:25
having measures which really go across
13:27
the strategic ambitions
13:29
of the institution.
13:30
So, student experience ones,
13:32
research measures,
13:33
civic measures makes total sense
13:36
because you said in answer
13:37
to the previous question, actually,
13:39
it was the strategic drivers of the institution
13:41
that drove—that initiated
13:43
or in part initiated this.
13:45
I think Debra will kind of recognise,
13:47
you know, the organisational changes.
13:49
But it sounds like you had a slightly different
13:51
kind of burning platform
13:53
that was more immediate to you.
13:54
And I wondered if that meant
13:56
that the measures that you were looking at
13:57
were more obviously financial,
13:59
or were you able to keep that wider
14:01
organisational perspective?
14:03
Again, a really interesting question.
14:05
And I've been listening to Steve very intently.
14:09
Because he's absolutely right
14:11
that the earlier you catch this
14:13
and the more strategic foresight
14:15
you have, the better prepared
14:16
you are to deal with the outcomes.
14:18
I didn't have that luxury.
14:20
I'd inherited a college that was already
14:24
in very, very challenging circumstances.
14:26
Financially, quality, reputationally.
14:29
Anything that that could go wrong,
14:31
had gone wrong already.
14:33
Working with the board became easy
14:36
because at that point
14:37
you really, really have got only one way to go.
14:41
But context, I think, is everything.
14:42
So, if you'll just indulge me
14:44
for a moment.
14:44
So, although I lead a large further education college,
14:49
we are also a higher education
14:52
institution in our own right.
14:53
We have foundation degree awarding powers,
14:56
and we serve the city of Hull,
14:59
which is the fourth most deprived
15:01
local authority in England.
15:04
So, what we see here is quite unique
15:08
in terms of the pattern of our students,
15:10
where they go and what they do.
15:14
And inheriting
15:16
what is essentially
15:18
a college that has failed
15:21
means you have to make a very clear line
15:23
in the sand between then and now.
15:25
I was very clear, as were my team,
15:28
that Hull College—whether that's FE
15:31
or HE—you need it to be world class.
15:33
Because being good won't
15:35
cut it in an area
15:36
that serves the level of deprivation
15:38
that we do.
15:39
And I make no apologies
15:41
for having that ambition.
15:42
We will be world class.
15:43
It is our journey.
15:45
We own it and we will make that happen.
15:48
So, what does that look like
15:49
in our context?
15:50
Because, you know,
15:51
world class is a very nebulous thing, isn't it?
15:54
Well, for us
15:55
it was about the financial metrics.
15:57
So, we needed to move
15:59
what was essentially
16:00
an inadequate financial position
16:02
to be an outstanding financial position.
16:05
And we did that. We did that in two years,
16:07
which was faster than I thought we could.
16:08
And we did it without making redundancies,
16:10
which is something I'm very proud of.
16:12
You know, essentially as a new senior leader,
16:15
you can do evolution or revolution, can't you.
16:17
Those are the two back pocket tools you have.
16:20
And I couldn't afford revolution
16:22
because of the washing machine
16:23
the college had already been through.
16:25
It would just break it further.
16:26
And I didn't have the time for evolution.
16:29
So, I kind of did something
16:30
that I’m terming evolution at pace.
16:32
I took all the evolutionary moves,
16:35
but what you would have done over
16:36
maybe ten years or
16:37
so we did in about two.
16:40
So, we secured financial stability.
16:42
We were able to move
16:43
from a very significant deficit
16:46
to being an operating surplus within two years.
16:50
We also had very significant quality problems.
16:52
So, we were graded as requires improvement
16:56
twice on the bounce by Ofsted.
16:58
And we were under observation
17:01
I think it's fair to say by the OFS.
17:04
And from our point of view,
17:07
that's our core business. If we can't get
that right,
17:10
well what really is going on there?
17:12
So, we gutted and rebuilt our curriculum
17:14
to match local labour market intelligence
17:17
and regional labour market intelligence.
17:19
We built in proper
17:21
scrutiny for our teaching practices
17:23
and really highly effective continuing
17:26
professional development
17:27
for our teaching practitioners
17:29
at all levels HE and FE.
17:32
We challenged very robustly
17:35
our support teams.
17:36
I was very pleased to hear
17:37
Steve have those same conversations.
17:40
Why do these processes exist?
17:42
What do they do for the institution?
17:44
Are you doing it for you?
17:46
Are you doing it for the students?
17:48
Is the tail wagging the dog?
17:50
And kind of gutted and rebuilt
17:52
all of those relationships.
17:53
Our reputation had been really very,
17:57
very badly damaged.
17:58
So, we got shoe leather out on the road.
18:00
I went to see every CEO within
18:02
like a 30 mile radius.
18:04
I didn't send my team out.
18:05
I did it, you know,
18:06
and I wasn't after their business
18:08
because at that point
18:09
we weren't strong enough
18:10
to really take their business.
18:11
But I wanted to open the door
18:13
to the relationship
18:14
because it was the relationship
18:16
that mattered, not the business.
18:19
We also wanted to validate all of that
18:22
by securing external recognition.
18:24
And we had gone for maybe 15 years or so
18:28
without winning kind of a single award.
18:30
Last year we won 18, some of them international.
18:33
And we also have
18:34
absolutely established ourselves
18:36
as a thought leader in AI
18:38
and digital transformation,
18:39
particularly with marginalised groups
18:42
like English speakers of other languages
18:44
and SEN students.
18:47
What I would say is we started absolutely
18:50
with the end point in mind.
18:51
In four years, we will be a world class
18:54
further and higher education college.
18:56
That's what we will be.
18:58
So, what are the steps
18:59
that you need to go through
19:00
to make that happen?
19:02
And then you start
19:04
and then you go and you don't stop.
19:06
And although
19:07
that was a four year movement
19:09
and we're kind of just over two
19:10
years into that now,
19:13
I don't anticipate that stopping
19:14
because world class doesn't stop.
19:16
You don't hit a marker
19:18
and think, okay, we've done it now.
19:19
I'll just, you know, I’ll hang my principal shoes up
19:22
and, you know, do something else.
19:24
What does the next iteration of world class
look like?
19:28
What will the fourth and fifth
19:29
industrial revolutions bring to us?
19:31
How do we aid our communities
19:32
and our employers with inward investment?
19:34
The Humber is an incredibly deprived region,
19:36
but rich with opportunities.
19:38
What's our part to play in that?
19:40
How do we take our stage regionally
19:42
as well as nationally
19:43
and internationally?
19:45
So, I hope that gives you some sense
19:46
of how we put those markers in the sand.
19:49
Trusha, I'm going to move to something
19:50
slightly different and wonder
19:52
if you've got any perspectives on.
19:54
We've heard two really fascinating and fantastic
19:57
examples of institutional change
20:00
and indeed ongoing change also.
20:02
But I wonder if there are some things
that are common
20:06
missteps or common challenges
20:09
which often are encountered
20:11
when going through
20:12
sort of strategic change like this.
20:14
Are there things that can
20:15
perhaps commonly go wrong,
20:17
or perhaps are sensible
20:19
safeguards to have in place
20:20
to avoid common mistakes from happening?
20:23
Really good question, Aaron.
20:24
And yes, you know,
20:26
when you're going through change
20:28
whether it's delivered
20:30
with strong financial resources
20:32
or you've got to,
20:34
you know, you create a vision,
20:35
you create goals, you create plans.
20:38
And it's bringing other people
20:41
along with you.
20:42
And so, it's within the goals in the plans
20:46
it’s also to understand
20:49
where the resistance to change might happen.
20:52
Because there will be, you know,
20:53
the people who have been in the role
20:55
for a long time, done things
20:57
a particular way
20:58
and suddenly they feel challenged in that
21:03
and they can't see the big picture.
21:05
And it's taking them along and
21:08
you know, being,
21:09
it's what I call creating
21:11
that empathetic leadership
21:13
that we're seeing with what
21:14
Steve and Debra have said.
21:16
You have to be tough with it.
21:17
But you've also got to understand that
21:21
the people on the other side
21:22
don't always see it from your point of view.
21:25
They only see it
21:26
from where they're sitting
21:27
and they feel a bit of pain
21:30
but not quite understanding
21:31
where the pain's taking them.
21:33
So, it's understanding them
21:35
and taking them through that.
21:37
So, you can have vision and goals.
21:38
But to me, a goal is
21:41
if I could describe a goal
21:42
in the way I see it, sometimes
21:44
it's like on a GPS. On a sat nav.
21:46
It is the
21:49
it's your postcode,
21:51
so you know exactly where you're landing.
21:53
And a well set goal
21:54
always happens as Debra’s
21:56
just said, you know, that they hit a goal
21:58
in two years.
21:59
You know,
22:00
they thought it would take longer.
22:01
So, well set goal would always happen.
22:03
And the plan is the roadmap.
22:05
So, you know,
22:06
if you give people a roadmap
22:07
it seems hard. But a goal
22:09
sometimes helps bring them along the way.
22:13
The other one that is, you know, it's
22:17
most organisations
22:19
feel is resource limitations.
22:21
And I'm not just going to say finance
22:23
because finance is the obvious one.
22:26
But sometimes you have gaps in skills
22:29
or finding the right people,
22:31
or training gaps.
22:34
So there are lots and lots of resources,
22:37
even space sometimes,
22:39
or sometimes you've got too much space,
22:40
you don't know what to do with it.
22:42
So it's all of those things
22:44
that need to be managed
22:46
whilst you're managing
22:47
the resistance to change.
22:49
Let me ask a final question,
22:51
which is really about advice.
22:53
And we've had quite a lot of it already
22:55
in this discussion.
22:56
But I wonder whether you've, if you've,
23:00
if you particularly received
23:01
any valuable advice when you went through
23:03
or have been going through the process?
23:05
Or if there's any advice
23:06
that you would want to share with others
23:08
that are maybe about to go through
23:09
a similar such process
23:11
in their institution?
23:13
I think the best
23:14
piece of leadership advice
23:15
I was given was always just be authentic.
23:18
So,
23:20
I started as a further education practitioner.
23:24
I'm still, I'm a teacher in my bones.
23:27
I love what I do.
23:29
I love the further education sector.
23:31
But I actually got my start
23:32
in higher education.
23:33
So, this isn’t
23:36
this isn't just a job for me.
23:37
This is absolutely why I get out of bed
23:40
every single day.
23:41
I care about every one of my students
23:43
and every one of my staff.
23:44
And I didn't hide that in anything I did.
23:47
And I think that authenticity,
23:49
walking the floors,
23:50
making sure I was connecting with people
23:52
really mattered and really made the difference.
23:54
Particularly because I was new,
23:56
coming into what was quite a turbulent time.
24:00
And I think
24:02
the other piece of advice that I was given,
24:04
and this was way,
24:05
way back in my career was, you know,
24:08
be transparent and be decisive.
24:10
If you are
24:13
if you can't make a decision,
24:14
how do you expect your team
24:15
to have any confidence
24:17
that you can lead properly?
24:18
And if you can't explain that decision
24:20
in ways they can understand,
24:22
what are you doing?
24:24
In terms of what I would say to others
24:27
who find themselves
24:28
in challenging circumstances.
24:30
And, you know,
24:31
let's be honest, in our sector,
24:33
whichever phase you are
24:34
in, there are many of us in that position.
24:37
I would say
24:37
be brutally honest with yourself.
24:39
You know,
24:40
if you have outdated models
24:42
that don't work, face that truth.
24:44
Because your institution
24:46
survival depends on it.
24:47
And more importantly,
24:48
so does your students.
24:49
And those students matter.
24:51
Their lives matter.
24:52
Their futures matter.
24:53
It's not something you can afford to ignore
24:56
because it's inconvenient.
24:58
Sugar coating does not solve problems,
25:00
it prolongs them.
25:02
I think the next thing I would say,
25:05
being a Yorkshire woman,
25:06
you might expect this from me,
25:07
but line by line, penny by penny analysis
25:11
of where your money is going.
25:13
Because you might find
25:14
some absolute howlers in there where
you’re just like.
25:17
Really? We spend this much on this?
25:21
And it might help
25:23
make some strategic decisions.
25:25
So, transformation really isn't glamorous.
25:27
You know, I'm 21.
25:29
It just, it's taken the years off me.
25:33
So it's not glamorous.
25:34
It's granular.
25:35
So, during our overhaul,
25:37
we evaluated every penny line by line,
25:40
because every pound wasted was a pound
25:42
stolen from front line services.
25:44
And if you're not ready to dig
25:45
that deep, don't bother starting.
25:48
I think the next thing I would say
25:49
is data is your lifeline.
25:51
You have to operate on the basis
25:53
of what you understand
25:54
and you only understand
25:56
what you have credible data to support.
25:59
You really shouldn't
26:01
make bold moves on the basis of guesswork
26:03
and gut instinct,
26:04
because you can be wrong
26:05
and you can be biased.
26:07
And I think the last thing I would say,
26:09
and it’s probably less of an issue
26:11
for the further education sector
26:13
because, you know, cards on the table,
26:15
we've never been flush with cash.
26:18
But you really need to
26:20
eliminate any vanity spending.
26:21
It's not about looking good on paper.
26:23
It's about building sustainable success.
26:26
So, cut what doesn't serve the mission.
26:29
As Steve rightly said,
26:30
the missions is everything.
26:31
Where are we going?
26:32
What are we going to do?
26:33
Cut what doesn't serve the mission.
26:35
And that's kind of the advice
26:37
I would give.
26:38
You've offered lots of, lots of bits of advice.
26:40
I don't if there's any final
26:41
nuggets that either Trusha or Steve
26:43
would like to throw into the pot.
26:46
I've been at the university almost 30 years.
26:48
Coming up for 20 years
26:49
as the vice-chancellor.
26:50
So, this place, I'm invested in this place,
26:53
and I admit we got some things wrong.
26:56
So, I was really clear
26:57
from the outset that to be authentic
27:00
you have to be able to admit
27:01
when it's not quite working
27:04
and build the team
27:06
with determination that
27:07
is going to make sure
27:09
that you don't repeat those mistakes,
27:11
or you try and avoid them
27:12
as best you can.
27:13
So, for me it’s about painting the big picture.
27:16
Providing the hope,
27:17
providing the direction
27:19
and then sticking to that,
27:22
even when it got slightly difficult.
27:24
So, inevitably,
27:26
you know, vice-chancellors’ pay
27:27
and all the other bits
27:28
and pieces that get thrown at you
27:30
all the time.
27:32
In the end, it's about doing the best
27:34
you possibly can for the institution.
27:37
Any vice-chancellor,
27:38
principal, chief executive
27:40
is there for a moment in time.
27:42
Our job is to make it better
27:45
for whatever follows.
27:46
And most important of all,
27:49
we need to ensure
27:50
that we give the students who are with us
27:53
the best possible opportunities
27:55
and the best quality of education
27:57
we can provide.
27:58
Because promising it
27:59
tomorrow isn't going to help them.
28:02
I think that driving ambition of
28:04
seeking to ensure the organisation
28:06
and its stakeholders,
28:07
its community,
28:08
is better served
28:09
by the time you finish or into the future
28:12
compared to where it is now.
28:13
You know, that constant quest for improvement
28:17
is something that can,
28:18
you know,
28:18
make sure that you can keep
28:19
getting up every day
28:20
and face those difficult decisions
28:22
that inevitably come
28:23
with these sorts of processes.
28:25
So, I think that's really helpful to hear.
28:27
And Trusha, the final voice to you,
28:31
final opportunity to you,
28:32
any final reflections that you'd want to add
28:35
into the conversation?
28:36
Again, what Debra and Steve have said
28:39
is exactly the leadership
28:40
that the reviews
28:42
and, you know, the mistakes that can make
28:46
when you're doing reviews like this,
28:48
you know,
you accept them as a leader
28:50
and you own them.
28:51
But at the same time,
28:52
it's the differentiation,
28:53
because everyone looks at
28:56
higher education organisations and
28:59
think, well, it's all the same.
29:00
But you are all different.
29:01
Each and every one that I have met
29:03
is different.
29:04
The way you approach it.
29:06
And it's so you attract the students
29:09
and the staff
29:10
that then honour your difference.
29:13
So, if that's always kept in the
29:15
vision and goals, you thrive.
29:18
And so to me it's what makes you different
29:21
and have that always as a question
29:23
for yourselves.
29:24
And that’s where I've seen organisations
29:27
do really, really well.
29:29
Fantastic.
29:30
Well, that's a lovely note to finish on.
29:32
It's been so wonderful to hear
29:35
three fantastic perspectives on, you know,
29:38
realising and pursuing change.
29:40
I think what's interesting also is that
29:42
none of you have said it's job done.
29:44
We can, you know, we can lie back.
29:47
I think this is a feature
29:48
of the environment that we're in.
29:50
So can I thank Steve, Debra and Trusha
29:52
for some fantastic insights. Thanks for listening.
29:55
And we’ll be, we’ll join
29:58
you for the next session in due course.
30:01
Thank you.
