Change Management at Ghent University Bert Hoogewijs

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

Historic City of Gent

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

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) Other Universities in Flanders

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Bologna in Flanders Structural Decree (April 2003) Other decrees to come (by ) 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

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

Accreditation Quality assurance In Flanders in collaboration with the Netherlands

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

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

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

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

Change Management at Ghent University Bert Hoogewijs Universiteit Gent Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 25 B-9000 Gent – Belgium