Archive for February, 2009

Well, my first Blog.

As the acting Chief Operating Officer (COO) since the 24 November 2008, I have been on a steep learning curve.

In my role as the Chief Operating Officer I have responsibility for the following Directorates:  Financial Services, Human Resources, Facilities Management, SportUNE and Services UNE.

The main priority when I first arrived was the 2009 UNE Budget and its approval by UNE Council. The 2009 UNE Budget was the first attempt by this University to introduce Activity Based Costing as a way to expose the ‘real’ costs to our academic units. The first year of this process has been crude but with further refinement the University will be able to indicate the cost drivers of our courses and I hope the real cost of providing central services to our faculties. During the UNE Council approval I indicated that there would be a review of the 2009 budget early in the new year once our enrolment figures are known. The cut off dates for the budget review process will be the 26 February 2009. This should be able to give myself and the Finance Service Directorate a 90% view of the expected enrolment numbers and thus an overall income. I would hope this review should be completed by mid March 2009.

The 2010 - 2012 budget process is already underway with an agreed consultative and approval process agreed to by the UNE Finance Committee. A series of information sessions with Heads of Schools and Directorates is also being undertaken.

There are a number of exciting strategic initiatives in progress at UNE at present. The challenge is to find funding for these initiatives to push along the outcomes necessary for the University. From my point of view UNE has under invested in capital renewal of its built environment and its IT infrastructure. The NSW Audit Office reports that the average spent on capital from all NSW universities is 10 - 11% of their budget. At UNE in 2007 we achieved just 6%. Of course the outcome of the next round of the Enterprise Bargaining is critical to UNE as is student enrolment figures, to obtain a longer term view of University income.

It is not all doom and gloom on the financial side. UNE has been successful in gaining $7.8 million in BURF grants for 2008/2009 and in addition $7.9 million will be forth coming after July 2009 for capital works. We are also hopeful of achieving success in the next round of Capital Development Pool applications. These will be known in March 2009. In addition UNE has submitted proposals for the next round of Infrastructure grants. All this is on top of the $6.8 million in the VSU grants obtained in 2008. These are already underway with the construction of the Grandstand at Bellview Oval and the refurbishment of SportUNE facilities are about to go to tender.

There are many other projects on my desk at present but I might save those for the future.

Hi everyone:

While 2009 is already fast progressing, it’s rewarding to reflect on the progress that has been made to date by the University across a number of areas in my portfolio and which may be of interest to you:  the UNE Residential System, international, Advancement, planning and so on.

 In terms of technology, UNE really is doing some great stuff, albeit our team still has a ways to go.  On the enterprise data reporting front, Planning and Institutional Research (PIR) has joined with the Business Intelligence team and we are working with a steering committee to provide reliable and useful reports on course and unit information, financial and other management reporting, research data, etc., with the current emphasis on a course and unit monitoring system.  These are reports academic managers will be able to use confidently to manage their Schools, programs, etc.
The University’s  Marketing unit has been working closely with the student services team and Planning and Institutional Research to monitor the results leading up to the first semester 2009 intake and to plan for ways in which to improve the marketing to prospective students.  We are planning a “Future Students Team” which will use the University’s “Rightnow” customer relationship management technology to better case manage students (and measure effectiveness) with enquiries from initial approach (enquiry) to final enrolment.  This will help provide a more seamless “client” focus to the student, with the argument obviously being that this approach, plus the greater use of sophisticated technology to stay in touch with, and market UNE to, prospective students will lead to greater enrolments at UNE.  The trial commences in 2009 with a view to final review in 2010.

 UNE’s Marketing and Public Affairs unit and the Faculties have also commenced an ‘engagement’ marketing strategy with the Faculties and the College system.  What this means is that each Faculty Marketing and the Colleges will get a dedicated marketing manager to plan and execute strategy with stakeholders in much greater detail than previously.

 The team in Marketing and Public Affairs have also completed a brand review with consultations held with the UNE Community in 2008.  Building on that, we now have final drafts of a preferred brand refresh, including logo redesign, with market testing about to get underway.  We’ll be presenting this to the UNE Community before long and will be developing a professional and major Marketing Plan to tighten and convey the overall UNE ‘value proposition’ (key messages) to the internal and external “community” for 2009/2010.

 The UNE residential system has commenced its internal Performance Improvement plan and we are already seeing some great progress.  Some colleges are reporting full occupancy for semester 1, 2009 - for some, an improvement on last year - while overall occupancy is holding relative to 2008.  In excess of $5M of funds have been secured Phase 1 of Mary White’s redevelopment is out to tender and when completed 60% of Mary White will be completely refurbishment.  A plan for Phase 2 at a cost in excess of $2M is underway.  UNE Finance Committee of Council agreed at a recent meeting to enable me to investigate the borrowing of up to $6M for further refurbishment of a vast majority of Wright Village and some other elements of a traditional College.  We are in discussion with Alliance, our preferred caterer to finalize a new catering contract which is designed primarily to increase the quality and presentation of food service to student while reducing costs to students and to UNE for its delivery.  It is expected that serveries will be redesigned and improved for students, and a central production kitchen will be used to increase quality and reduce costs of production.

 UNE’s new Office of Advancement is also breaking new ground for the University.  The unit is now staffed by a strong and stable team, headed by incoming director, Ms. Martha Saw.  Martha also serves as the new CEO of the UNE Foundation.  Martha has been working with the Chair of the Foundation, Dr. Geoffrey Fox to rebuild the Foundation by seeking to appoint several new Directors.  A plan of works has been established in order to increase the response rate to the University’s Annual Appeal via an enhanced communication format and a trial telemarketing strategy is underway to renew contact with Alumni. A detailed review of academic initiatives with Heads of Schools to determine high-profile initiatives that will resonate with prospective donors is in progress, and a strategy for raising up to half a million dollars per annum for the Clinical and Medical school has commenced.

 International recruitment at the University is showing great gains with UNE’s English language enrolments increasing by 76% in 2008 over 2007.  International student enrolment numbers also rose by 15% in 2008, over 2007, and at this rate we will be on target to meet the University’s Strategic Plan targets of doubling international student enrolments by 2010.  The International Services, Marketing, legal and academic staff have worked to support our teaching partners’ ISBT and TOP start-up successfully in 2008 and 2009 respectively, and we now await the Victorian government’s outcome on UNE’s submission to operate inter-state with ISBT, commencing hopefully mid year.

Well, a week or so in the life anyway. In the tradition of blog, here are some of the things that have been occupying me over the last little while.

We have been working on a Self Review of the University for a few months in order to prepare for the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) audit in July. Well, we finished the Exposure Draft this week and put it on the web for comment:
http://www.une.edu.au/auqa/2009/Self%20Review%20Report_draftforcomment_February2009.pdf

If you get the chance take a look at it, it gives a view on some important aspects of UNE and makes recommendations for changes that we think are necessary.

It ends with an outline of where we think we should be going in the future. There is a story to this in that almost everyone I have spoken to since I came to UNE 6 months ago has acknowledged that we lost our leading position in DE innovation and market development some time ago and that we urgently need to do something about this. The DE Review a couple of years back acknowledged this, made well over a 100 recommendations and funded some projects but again, there is widespread recognition that we have not made the ’step change’ needed.

This is about to change as we are developing the concept of UNE as Australia’s e-University. We think we can re-capture our innovation and market position again and are presently working to develop this concept. We will soon be starting the conversation across the University on exactly how we need to develop as an organisation and what we need to do to support this change. One of the exciting things about this is its coincidence with the work that Belinda Tynan and Victor Minichiello’s have done to gain $3.5m to develop a ‘DE Hub’ at UNE, which gives us a flying start. There is an exciting opportunity here to develop together the e-University and DE Hub concepts and we will be developing ideas on how we can do this with staff throughout the University over the months ahead.

Talking about the e-environment, I hosted a meeting last week of people using Facebook for various purposes, especially attracting and welcoming prospective students to UNE. My family are all Facebook users (yes, even Ben the dog has a profile and 25 friends) so I was interested when I found that we have our own, student/friend on Facebook: Kate UNE. If you know of people who are interested in coming to UNE and want to talk about this; Kate UNE is a great new way for them to do so. And if you want to become friends with a cute West Highland terrier look up Ben Webb at:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1624922971

It is with great pleasure that I introduce you to our new communication channel “The UNE Voice”. This staff e-mail bulletin is designed to provide a convenient update on a wide range of activities and issues at the University of New England. It is my hope that you will find this bulletin useful to you in your work, and that you will enjoy reading about what’s happening at UNE from a variety of contributors.

Each issue of The UNE Voice will include a column from a different member of the Vice-Chancellor’s Committee on a variety of issues concerning the University’s operations and strategic direction. I encourage you to see this column as a two-way conversation, and to share your responses through the appropriate channels in your school, research unit or directorate.

I also encourage you to consider The UNE Voice as a potential way for you to inform the university community about important events and opportunities in your area, and to share your ideas about how we can improve it. Examples you will find below include: employment opportunities, service announcements, upcoming events, and news items.

Please forward any contributions and/or feedback about The UNE Voice to the acting PR manager, Leon Braun, in Marketing and Public Affairs at lbraun3@UNE.edu.au.