Creating Value conference: Who should attend and cost

A keynote address will be delivered by Zoe Radnor (Professor of Operations Management, Cardiff University), and there will be a number of workshops run by colleagues who have delivered efficiencies successfully, both from HE and organisations in the private sector (e.g. on shared services, lean, idea capture schemes etc.).

All are welcome, and the conference is specifically aimed at managers in university professional services, who want to find out more about how their department or unit could work more efficiently and effectively.

Online booking will open in mid-October. To find out more about the conference, visit the website at: http://www.exeter.ac.uk/spc/stratplan/hefcecreatingvalue/conference or contact the conference organisers Steph Sanders (s.a.sanders@exeter.ac.uk) and Iain Springate (i.e.springate@exeter.ac.uk).

Researcher and Project Manager- 'Creating Value'

Strategic Planning and Change

University of Exeter

http://www.exeter.ac.uk/spc/stratplan/hefcecreatingvalue/

www.twitter.com/morewithlessHE

I.E.Springate@exeter.ac.uk

01392 726195

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Creating Value conference: Provisional programme

The provisional programme is subject to change, and will be updated as speakers and their precise topics are confirmed. 
9.00-9.45: Registration and refreshments
9.45-10.00: WelcomePatrick Kennedy, Director of Strategic Planning and Change, University of Exeter.
10.00-11.00: Keynote address, followed by questionsProfessor Zoe Radnor, University of Cardiff
11.00-11.20 Break and refreshments
11.20-12.10: Workshops 

• Implementing Lean thinking- Capgemini. Lean is a generic process management philosophy, looking to make processes as efficient as possible, whilst delivering maximum value for the customer. The aim of the workshop is to introduce the concept of Lean, and consider what the benefits of implementing it might be for universities, based on the example of a large institution that is currently implementing Lean.
• Data mining to identify potential efficiencies. This workshop will discuss how large datasets relating to core university processes can be interrogated to look at how efficient processes are, where savings and improvements could be made, and to provide an ongoing measure of efficiency of processes. The workshop will use as a case study work being done at the University of Exeter to identify gaps in data being collected and to fill them, as well as to interrogate existing datasets in order to identify and deliver savings.
• Using idea capture schemes to gather intelligence from staff on working more efficiently and effectively- Anthony Denatale, Ideas UK. Staff often have great ideas about how their organisations could work more efficiently and effectively. This workshop will look at the benefits of staff suggestion schemes, and how to plan and run one successfully in a university.
• Making shared services successful- Carol Mills, Director of HR, University of Liverpool. Shared services has been identified by Universities UK, among others, as a potential way for universities to make savings. This workshop will look at how universities can make shared services a success, particularly drawing on experience from Liverpool.

12.15-1pm Speed updatingThis session will include several brief updates on how universities are delivering efficiencies and improving effectiveness successfully, and the launch of an online learning resource to help managers deliver savings.
1-1.45pm Lunch
1.45-2.30pm Workshops (repeated)
2.35-3.30pm Making it happen: Increasing efficiency and effectivenessThis session will involve a panel discussion and question and answer session, focusing on ways delegates can take forward some of the ideas presented at the conference, including key challenges and change enablers.
3.30pm Conference close

Creating Value conference: Who should attend and cost 

The conference is open to all, and is specifically aimed at managers in HE working within professional services, who want to find out more about how their department or unit could work more efficiently, and save time and/or money.

Examples of staff that might like to attend are:

• Faculty/School managers
• Assistant Faculty/School managers
• Directors/Assistant of Planning/Projects
• Directors/Assistant Directors of finance
• Project Managers
• Team leaders.

The cost is £145.

Creating Value: Delivering more with less in Higher Education

The University of Exeter is organising a conference entitled ‘Creating Value: Delivering more with less in Higher Education’ on the 5th January 2012. Delegates will hear about practical approaches that universities and those from other sectors have used to successfully deliver more with less, and increase efficiency and effectiveness.
This is important given the difficult economic climate, which, allied with the new funding regime, increasing expectations of students, and increasing global competition, means that to succeed, universities need to become more efficient, agile, and skilled at delivering more with less.  
The conference will focus on different ways that universities have successfully delivered efficiencies, as well as examples of what those in other sectors have done that are applicable to HE, and will aim to provide information and ideas for HE staff to take away and apply in their institutions. The conference will draw on good practice from within and beyond HE, including the work of the HEFCE-funded ‘Creating Value’ project, which has developed an evidence-based set of resources to aid managers in HE to deliver more with less.
The conference will include:

• Keynote presentation from Zoe Radnor (Professor of Operations Management at Cardiff University Business School), who has conducted important research into how institutions, including universities, are improving efficiency/effectiveness
• Practical workshops on delivering efficiencies (e.g.  implementing Lean, data mining to deliver efficiencies, idea capture schemes focused on making savings, and sharing services effectively)
• Speed Updates from several universities about how they are delivering efficiencies
• Launch of a set of online resources to help managers in universities deliver efficiencies
• Panel discussion focused on how to take the ideas from the conference and put them into practice.

Higher education white paper could open the doors to private sector and shared services

Will the long-awaited white paper give private colleges the boost they are looking for?

• guardian.co.uk, Monday 20 June 2011 19.31 BST

Postgraduate students at BPP University College, the first private institution to be granted university college status in over 30 years. Photograph: Susan Swindells for the Guardian

As the dust settles on the launch of AC Grayling's New College of the Humanities (and rarely can so much spin and marketing have generated so many column inches), attention turns to the more serious business of the higher education white paper, expected soon.

The two are linked since this much-delayed policy paper should determine how far the government intends to push its mission to boost the private higher education market. The direction of travel was set soon after the general election, when ministers granted university college status to the BPP University College of Professional Studies.
BPP is owned by the for-profit US education corporation, Apollo Group, which runs the fast-growing Phoenix University, where student enrolment has mushroomed from about 20,000 to almost half a million over 15 years. Does the future lie with multinational, for-profit, education companies? Compared with the booming echo of the expansion plans of this commercial giant, the New College of the Humanities is muted sherry party chatter.
There is potential for the private market to expand in Britain. Globally, private institutions deliver about 30% of higher education, yet in the UK it is much less. Exactly how much less is hard to say as, according to a recent report from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce), private providers are not required to report student enrolment numbers.
BPP is currently one of only four private providers with their own UK degree-awarding powers. And, although the private sector already operates in higher education in other ways, it remains niche, providing mainly professional, graduate-level qualifications in business, management, law and finance.
So looking to the market to expand mainstream undergraduate teaching requires a leap of faith. But as well as its ideological commitment to the market, the government (or at least the Conservative bit of it) desperately wants to find ways of boosting the supply of undergraduate places at little or no cost to the taxpayer. It also hopes that competition from private providers will reduce unit costs among traditional universities.
The for-profit sector certainly sees opportunities in the UK once the cap on tuition fees rises to £9,000. The principal of BPP, Carl Lygo, told a parliamentary committee last month he has "aspirations to make a wider subject offering" than the current focus on business, law and health. He noted that Apollo already runs universities in arts, communications and wider health subjects, and that "is certainly the aspiration for BPP".
So what does the white paper need to do to boost the private sector? A big risk for private universities is that their degree-awarding powers are only granted for a six-year period. If they lose those powers, their entire business case collapses. Extending that period, or making it permanent, would encourage market entrants.
The other big issue is public subsidy. In the US, for-profit private universities rely almost entirely on student fees since they lack endowments or direct public funding. However, as a recent University and College Union study of the US model showed, there is an indirect public subsidy behind their fee income since students at private universities in the US are eligible for federal student aid. Indeed, it has been claimed that without this indirect subsidy the model would barely be profitable.
At present, in the UK most students at private institutions do not receive state financial support, although they are eligible under certain circumstances. As Lygo told MPs last month, this area is "opaque and obscure, so it is not surprising that the whole of the private sector does not know about that particular source of potential funding". Any white paper measures clarifying this could be a shot in the arm for the private sector.
But what are the risks of opening the taps to greater private provision? The universities minister, David Willetts, should know since his department received a private warning from Hefce last July and that advice has subsequently been published.
In it, Hefce highlighted the risk that private providers could cherry-pick profitable courses, ignoring the high-cost science and technology subjects the country needs. This brings the further risk of destabilising existing universities that, more altruistically, attempt to offer the full range of courses.
Hefce concluded that, taken together, the dangers of greater private sector involvement "may amount to a reputational risk for UK higher education". So, if the white paper does herald a rush to the market, ministers cannot say they were not warned.

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