From function to organisational structure

Getting the right academic structures will be important for achieving the ambitious plans emerging in the green paper on the University’s strategic plan.

During the past few months there has been wide debate about a range of academic developments that might be required to create a step change in our academic activities at Sussex. The future size and shape of the University is becoming clearer and current high-level thinking has been articulated in the green paper which is being considered widely across the University.

At meetings I had last term with academic staff from across the University that helped to inform these academic developments, I took the opportunity to discuss some aspects of our current organisational arrangements, particularly the relationship between departments and schools.

Most departments expressed a strong wish to have greater autonomy, including direct control over their financial resources, in order better to meet the needs of staff and students and to achieve their teaching and research goals. At the same time the value of schools and the work done by Deans was highly regarded. I was told that any change to the organisational structure should be evolutionary and should be implemented as soon as possible. The need to continue to recognise individual academic disciplines, however small, within the structure was also widely supported.

I have had now meetings in recent weeks with academic staff to explore the implications of these ideas further. Devolution of responsibility to departments would be difficult under the current structure, which has nearly 30 such units of widely varying size. Such devolution could however work effectively with a smaller number of units, possibly by creating clusters of related activities.

Maintaining a strategic level above departments could also be achieved, although it might be more efficient to reduce the number of these larger groupings, so there is a clear downward flow of administrative support to departments.

High-calibre leadership at all levels would be an absolute requirement: there would need to be a clear commitment by the institution to prepare, support and reward individuals taking on these new roles. This organisational model would inevitably bring the departments and the executive much closer, especially with respect to budget setting and financial management.

At the planning conference for more than 80 senior academic, Professional Services and support staff on Friday 1 February, we discussed a concept of three faculties – Science, Arts and Social Sciences – with departments of these new faculties aggregated in such a way that they each have a minimum of about 30-35 FTE (full-time equivalent) academic staff, but at the same time preserve the identity of individual disciplines.

I have now asked that Deans work speedily with Heads of Department, School Administrative Managers (SAMs) and Technical Services Managers (TSMs) to make recommendations by the end of this term about the possible academic groupings within such new faculties. As soon as we have a mature proposal then clearly this will need to be considered by Senate and Council.

Support staff structures would be developed to match and support the new academic structures – with SAMs and TSMs working with Professional Services teams to develop options, ensuring the right support is provided at each level

I should emphasise that this evolution of our organisational structure is not about cutting costs but is aimed to devolve resources and responsibilities deeper into the institution, to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the management process and to speed up decision making.

The papers on this are available at www.sussex.ac.uk/vc/ambition