Analysing our Professional Services

Throughout the last five years of my time as Registrar there has been a growing consensus that we need to do more to address the challenges facing professional services across the University.

We know that, despite the dedication and efforts of our staff, our services are not as efficient or effective as they might be, and that it’s increasingly hard to find ways of making incremental improvements. 

However, until now, we haven’t had clear evidence that has allowed us to describe our services, their structure, their strengths and weakness – either in terms of how the University receives them, or by way of comparison with other large research-intensive universities. That makes it hard for us to make collective decisions about how we approach improvements. 

Strategic Review analysis phase 

So I am pleased to tell you that we are reaching the end of the diagnostic analysis phase of the Strategic Review of Professional Services.  

Launched in Trinity term as part of Professional Services Together, the strategic review allows us to take a broad look at our professional model across Oxford and helps build a consensus for any strategic change in direction that might be needed.   

As the first step in this process, we undertook a detailed analysis of our services over the summer. This included a review of internal data and that of other universities, as well as a listening exercise involving more than 100 academic and professional services staff.  

Challenging our assumptions 

One of the fascinating findings of our analysis is that it challenges some of our fundamental assumptions about our services. For example, the perceived wisdom at Oxford is that our professional services are more expensive than those at other universities; that our challenges are largely due to the growth of our teaching and research; and that the central University is continually growing.  

In fact, the analysis reveals that the size of Oxford’s professional services is broadly in line with the wider sector; that our challenges are as much due to increased complexity as the rate of growth; and that there has been significant investment in recent years (albeit unevenly in different parts of the University, with UAS remaining broadly flat). 

Strengths and weaknesses 

The analysis also revealed both strengths and weaknesses of our devolved model.   

Colleagues were keen to highlight the brilliance of many of our local support teams, and the expertise of our specialised central functions. Some colleagues feel well supported in meeting their local objectives and many are noticing positive changes resulting from Professional Services Together – whether from service reviews or the increasing emphasis on knowledge exchange and stronger professional networks.

However, there were significant concerns about service quality, and confusion about who is meant to be doing what – particularly from parts of the University with limited opportunities for local investment and areas where increased demand has not been matched with increased resources.  

There is also a widespread feeling that our model leads to uncertainty around decision making and oversight, and a patchwork of professional communities without the consistent support our people need.   

Addressing our underlying issues 

In a nutshell, the analysis recognises the brilliance of our people and the value placed on departmental services, but also identifies the lack of consistent common frameworks and oversight; the uncertainty over responsibility and accountability; the fragmented support for our professional service population; and a lack of strategic oversight of our services as a whole.   

If we don’t tackle these issues the situation is likely to get worse. Financial constraints and growing workloads mean that the current arrangements are not sustainable, and that means that members of the University, from academics to students to professional services staff, will find it increasingly difficult to teach, research and learn.  

What happens next?

Through this term, we will be discussing the analysis of the findings with leadership teams and governance groups across the University – checking our assumptions, and drawing out ideas for tackling some of the issues we face.   

Based on those discussions, we then plan to bring for further consultation our proposals for change from Hilary term 2024 .   

Our analysis at last gives us the evidence base to ground proposals for improvements and development of our professional services, and I look forward to telling you more next term. 

I would love to hear your thoughts on our findings, and on what we might do next, so please do get in touch via pst@admin.ox.ac.uk.