Increase your awareness, insight and know-how of technical services structures and restructuring in Higher Education

In the last decade we have witnessed centralisation and decentralisation (in common terms, the ‘make-up’ and ‘break-up’) of the organisational structure in Higher Education (HE) across the UK, mostly in the name of seeking operational efficiencies, cost savings, meeting the needs of the customer (i.e. students) and achieving growth in a highly competitive environment. Restructuring can occur in the face of unprecedented financial pressures and challenges; often in times of crises, with change in the upper echelon of management that result in reviews and a revised medium and long term strategic plan. Whilst these are regarded as ‘hard’ restructuring at universities, there are also ‘soft’ and ‘organic’ transformations taking place at the business and functional levels that are smaller in scale, cost, change and complexity. Both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ restructuring have been applied to academic, administrative and professional service functions, including in the technical services structure.

Most technical services restructuring aim to create a more agile and responsive structure, address historic issues of duplication and silo working, coupled with enabling staff with the opportunity to gain new skills, operate in matrix structures and career opportunities. And like all change projects, it comes with a range of pitfalls that need careful understanding, insight and navigation, to achieve the best possible outcomes. However, this can be a huge challenge and a source of stress for leaders and managers in the current climate, especially as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic.

For more information please visit https://heated.org.uk/hoc-028/