1. Change Management at Ghent University Bert Hoogewijs

2. Situating the city Between the coast and Brussels Part of Flanders Dutch-speaking Ghent University (UGent) – 25,000 students – distributed campus

3. Historic City of Gent

4. Situating the University Founded in 1817 Autonomous public university since 1991 11 faculties and 134 departments 5,500 staff Part of Ghent University Association

5. FoundedStudents K.U.Leuven (Louvain)142527,000 VUB (Brussels)1834 (1969) 9,000 UA (Antwerp) (RUCA-UFSIA-UIA) 1995 (2003) 9,000 LUC (Limburg) (+ TUL with Maastricht ) 19712,500 KUB (Brussels)1969700 Other Universities in Flanders

6. Mission statement Education Research Services to society Also: socially committed, pluralistic, broad international profile, decentralised and dynamic, participation

7. Organisational Structure I Rector and Vice-Rector Board of Directors Executive Committee Management Committee

8. Organisational Structure II Central administration (8 Departments) 11 Faculties (+ Faculty boards) Faculty departments Degree planning committees Advisory councils and committees

9. Change Management: Overview Financial reform: 1991-1996 Reorganisation of Faculty departments Resource allocation models Personnel management reorganisation Reform of central administration Bologna process

10. Financial Reform Autonomy led to financial accountability Reduction of personnel costs Reduction of Faculty departments Introduction of resource allocation models Constraints on spending

11. Resource Allocation Models Autonomy and lump sum funding Distributive codes for distribution of resources More autonomy for faculties

12. Distributive codes Academic staff: 85% teaching activities 30% programmes offered 45% teaching load 10% graduate dissertations 15% research New analysis of real needs in progress Decentralisation

13. Reorganisation of Departments From 400 to 134 Smallest administrative unit Collectively responsible for organisation of teaching (content = degree planning committees) Led by elected chairman Research units

14. Personnel management reorganisation I Support staff – new procedure for hiring – job assessment and evaluation – job function classification: functional groups with specific salary scales

15. Personnel management reorganisation II Academic staff – new career model for senior academic staff – two major classes and a dual approach – seniority and biannual evaluations (incl. student evaluations) – competition applies to the highest categories

16. Reorganising the Central Administration I First analysis of information flows led to recommendations Second analysis led to STaR project S= service-oriented T= transparant and R= responsibility-oriented

17. Reorganising the Central Administration II STaR led to new structure from 1 Oct 2001 Eight central departments : Educational Affairs Research Administrative Affairs Personnel and Organisation Finance Information and Communication Technology Infrastructure and Facility Management Student Facilities

18. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Automation of administrative procedures First application is Finance (with SAP)

19. Bologna – Prague – Berlin European Higher Education Area Convergence towards 2-cycle structure of Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees Implementation by 2010 Educational change: Bologna

20. Bologna in Flanders Structural Decree (April 2003) Other decrees to come (by 2004-2005) Professionally oriented and Academic Bachelor’s degrees Master’s degrees of at least 60 credits (1 year) Master’s degrees as additional qualification Ba-Ma system implemented from 2004-2005

21. Associations Collaboration between 1 university and several other institutes of higher education Ghent University Association comprises 4 institutions University supervises research of the members of the association Bridging programmes

22. Accreditation Quality assurance In Flanders in collaboration with the Netherlands

23. Flexible learning Decree is being prepared Individual learning paths From credit transfer to credit accumulation

24. Ghent University Association Legal status since the spring of 2003 Representatives of all institutes in governing bodies Co-operation by means of wide-ranging working groups Discipline-oriented working groups discuss content The transition towards the Ba-Ma structure is on course

25. Strategic Policy Lines Continued and strict budget control Market-orientation Internationalisation Personnel management Innovation

26. Conclusion Drastic transition from state university to autonomous public university Confidence in the future

27. Change Management at Ghent University Bert Hoogewijs Universiteit Gent Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 25 B-9000 Gent – Belgium Bert.Hoogewijs@UGent.be