Service design for universities
Sometimes solutions are under our noses - you just need the right approach to unlock them. In this post, consultant Jean Mutton explains service design, which she says is for anyone who often thinks "there must be a better way".
Process improvement events – why they are worth the effort
Process improvements are "the most effective way of achieving a strong project team with collective responsibility for improvement activities," says Rachel McAssey. In this blogpost, the University of Sheffield's head of process improvement explains how project teams can benefit from these events and shares advice on running them.
9 December: Service Design for Universities, Glasgow
This one day workshop will show participants how to to develop and deliver great services through a design-led approach. They can get hands-on experience using a set of tools and techniques which have been shown to improve how universities can redesign their key services and processes used by their staff and students.
How Participative Process Reviews can nurture conversations and deliver efficiencies
After taking part in workshops run by the Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development, teams in Oxford Brookes University have changed their practices to make them less complicated, more streamlined and more cost effective. As part of a series of posts by the nine ITF-funded projects, Ian Whiting explains the aims of the Participative Process Review programme.
Are students at the heart of our processes?
The University of Leicester has developed an approach to engaging senior leaders with the student experience. In the latest of our blogs from the nine Innovation and Transformation Fund projects, Claire King writes that the university believes it can provide valuable insight for institutions looking to develop similar approaches.
Engagement driven approach to process improvement
When University of Hertfordshire staff were invited to review a frustrating process to change a key academic document, the energy generated by the engagement process was channelled into something positive. Gill Sadler explains how this engagement-driven approach is being embedded in the university’s process improvement work.
People, process and performance – a model for change in HE?
A project to bring the questions of people and performance together with lean methodologies has been developed by the Aber-Bangor Strategic Alliance with funding from the Innovation and Transformation Fund (ITF). The Alliance’s Chris Drew provides the first in a series of posts by the nine ITF-funded projects.
Discussion: restructuring a research office
Restructuring can help to achieve many efficiency benefits for universities - but it is never an easy option. In this discussion, Richard Bond of the University of the West of England and Julie Northam of Bournemouth University share their experiences of restructuring a research office.
A guide to evidencing the benefits of business process improvement – University of Strathclyde
This guide describes how higher education institutions can evidence benefits of business process improvement. It outlines how to quantify benefits throughout a typical project life-cycle for process redesign / process modelling activities and demonstrates how to gather, record and communicate the information to allow for more accurate reporting of a project's impact.
Guide to evidencing the benefits of business process improvement launched
A range of ways to maximise the opportunities to evidence benefits of business process improvement are outlined in a guide published by the University of Strathclyde. Heather Lawrence explains more about how it can help higher education staff.
