|
courses | hecs/oldps
| higher education home | higher
education links
publications | issues | research | scholarships | statistics | universities
ECU Service 2000:
A client-centred transformation of corporate services
Introduction
ECU is the second largest university in Western Australia, educating
about one third of the state’s students. The 20 000 students either
attend one of the five campuses or undertake their course through external
study. Four of the campuses are within the Perth metropolitan area and one
is at Bunbury, a regional city in the south west of WA. It is the campuses
that form the core of ECU’s identity, with each bringing a rich
tradition of teaching quality and large numbers of alumni over the past
century.
The University has developed high quality programs, especially for the
professions in the expanding services sector. Like other ‘new’
universities ECU’s research strengths are rapidly expanding after
strategic investment of significant resources, and ECU holds a leading
position in the practical application of core educational technologies.
International student enrolments have steadily grown, as has private
income from alliances and partnerships with other educational providers
and the corporate sector.
All of these are positives in a competitive and dynamic higher
education environment. However, ECU is not yet 10 years old, and external
pressures have grown considerably in the past four years with pressures on
public funding colliding with the mass increase in students seeking
enrolment; and with globally-driven changes in academic work and the need
for flexibility coming up against an increasingly imperfect industrial
system. No Australian university has had the privilege of immunity from
these changes, and strategic positioning activity around the country is
increasing. ECU began its strategic planning process in 1997. The
University’s strategic plan, released in 1998, stated:
The administrative divisions of the University will be flexible,
responsive to change, service oriented and efficient in delivering
support and services to the University. This will be achieved by
introducing improvements in structures and processes …
(The Edith Cowan University Strategic Plan 1998-2002:p29).
The strategic plan made it clear that ECU was seeking to enhance its
position in a competitive higher education market by making sure resources
and operations were focused on its core business of teaching, learning and
research. In essence that meant ensuring the expectations and needs of
students were met through the provision of high quality services. To meet
this need a review of ECU’s corporate services was undertaken in late
1998 and, after consultation, a final decision on the shape of the
restructure was made.
This paper describes the process and final form of the restructure, in
which eight divisions with traditional and compartmentalised functions
were transformed into four client-focused service centres. This was a
radical move in a sector that has not traditionally seen itself as having
‘clients’, and where administration has tended to be organised along
functional lines. The implementation phase of the restructure is
described, including the important principles and processes used to manage
change. The final section of the paper has the advantage of hindsight, and
examines ECU’s relative success, and some of the pitfalls, in moving to
the new philosophical approach of a client-centred focus.
Full Report PDF
(337KB)
Return to the Top of the Page
|
