AUA Blog

AUA Strategy Review

At the AGM in Nottingham, the members agreed that 10 strategic objectives, put forward for discussion by the Executive Committee, fitted well with the Association's mission and should form the basis of a revised strategy and supporting action plans for this year and beyond.  Executive Committee has now signed off the actions supporting the objectives, and these have been posted in the members only part of the website (the place where you need a date of birth/memorable date and a password to get in!).

The AUA National Office will periodically report on the progress being made on delivering the action plan and thus meeting the objectives - so even more reason to look out for information in the members only area.

Just to whet your appetite, though, we agreed that as an association, AUA wants to build up a membership that promotes professionalism and excellence throughout the sector, supported by a responsive national office, promoting a re-invigorated AUA brand. We want to be sure that our CPD programme is the most useful in terms of sector-relevance available, that we are using ICT opportunities to best effect, and by these means have a suitably high profile as an active player in the sector. We want to be an organisation that embraces partnership through appropriate strategic alliances, not averse to risk, and looking to ensure financial viability through a range of means appropriate to our mission. We want to be cost-effective in delivering the highest quality services and publications to our membership – both in the UK, and increasingly further afield as we make global links.

So – if you would like to see how this is to be done – visit the members only site and see the action plan. If you need help accessing the site, contact the national office on 0161 275 2063.

Bruce Nelson
Chair

Ending the tickbox culture

The latest Higher carries an article about an impending Scottish Funding Council (SFC) consultation aimed at ending the “tickbox culture that hinders academe”.

The Higher claims that the SFC aims to “ensure that governing bodies genuinely take responsibility for running institutions rather than assume that the Council is in charge (sic)” 

The article states that the consultation could lead to the SFC's dropping many of its data requirements and, potentially, learning what it needs from institutions' websites. Roger McClure, SFC Chief Executive, says that this would reinforce governing bodies' responsibilities and autonomy, leading to continual improvement in the quality of their decision-making. "You're no longer filling in forms for the funding council but displaying to your own local stakeholders how you feel you're doing," he said. And that administrators would gain most from the potential changes.

Where do colleagues think the biggest potential gains would be from the Funding Councils dropping demands for data/ending the compliance culture?