Discover and share good practice for smarter working universities

Schools Planning Framework for Academic Leaders

The Schools Planning Framework project funded by the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, seeks to explore the development of a practical application of a performance management tool, aimed at academic units. The report sets out the findings of the project as a case study based at the University of Lincoln.

Participative Process Review – toolkit

The process reviews developed by Oxford Brookes have been specifically designed to enable teams to subsequently self-facilitate further reviews. This toolkit introduces the concept of carrying out process reviews to professionals working in higher education.

Engagement driven approach to process improvement – University of Hertfordshire

This report describes a project to develop an approach to process improvement within Higher Education that focuses on people, acknowledges their different perspectives and uses these perspectives to enhance capability.

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.

Putting Students at the Heart of Our Processes – University of Leicester

This report is a guide to the University of Leicester's exploration into whether connecting senior leaders more closely to the student experience created an impetus for organisational improvement. It contains information on “what works” in engaging senior leaders and seeks to provide insights for institutions looking to develop similar approaches.

Shared services – Out of Hours Helpline – case study – June 2015

A subscription-based, shared service providing first and second line support with IT and library queries to students and staff.

Development of an Academic Intern Scheme

This project will develop a professional development scheme for postgraduates interested in an academic career. This intern scheme is designed to offer an innovative and inclusive way to expose postgraduate taught and research students to wider academic skills, practices and processes, whilst providing an opportunity to see the workings of a higher education institution.

£14.8m cash efficiency savings for NEUPC members

Following the publication of the North Eastern Universities Purchasing Consortium’s (NEUPC) annual report, Maria Langham describes the consortium’s recent achievements and how it plans to support universities in their mission to deliver world-class education in the future.

HE Shared Legal – the new shared legal service for UK higher education

HE Shared Legal, the new national shared legal service for the UK higher education sector, is a pilot project borne out of a HEFCE and JISC Advance backed feasibility study conducted in 2010. Since the service was launched on 1 May 2012, it has gained eleven HE subscriber institutions, published more than 170 items of generic guidance, and attended to over 85 individual legal enquiries.

Evidencing the benefits of a business improvement project from the start

Following the launch of the University of Strathclyde's Guide to Evidencing the Benefits of Business Process Improvement in July 2015, Nicola Cairns shares an example of how this approach can be seamlessly integrated into existing business improvement projects.