Rethinking institutional policy in the age of web reading

Dr Kai Jensen, Deputy Director – Academic Policy & Governance,

Academic Registrar’s Group

RMIT University Academic Registrar’s Group 2

1. Outline of this presentation

A. Background to current state of policy at RMIT University

B. Current state of policy – textual complexity, adverse effects

C. Some thoughts on web reading habits

D. Solution (work currently under way)

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2. Background to current state of academic policy

Most of the eight Victorian universities ran policy framework projects in the 2000s

The RMIT University policy project in 2004-2006 brought into being:

The Policy on policies

– defined ‘policy’ and ‘procedure’

– defined the development and approval process for these.

The policies and procedures website

– gathered all policy-type texts into a single repository

– intended to be the go-to place for staff.

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3. Current state of academic policy

As at mid-2011, the policies and procedures website has some 540 texts.

Of these, 165 are ‘academic’ – defined as approved by:

Academic Board

or (for texts below the level of procedure)

the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) or

the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research and Innovation).

Let’s look at the user experience for a moment . . .

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4. Causes of the textual complexity

It seems that policy inflation has been at work!

Putative causes:

complex institution (dual sector, international)

some texts elevated to status of procedure when website created

past Academic Board insistence that process rules must be in procedures

continuing tendency to develop single-topic policies to fill perceived gaps

no one unit with overall responsibility at least for academic policy.

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5. Academic policy stakeholder units

Academic Policy Team

Learning and Teaching Unit

Quality Consultancy Unit

School of Graduate Research

Office of the DVC (Academic)

Office of the Director TAFE

Academic Board

Three standing committeesUniversity Secretariat

Vice-Chancellor’s Executive

Internal Audit & RiskLegal Services

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6. Further aspects of the textual complexity

Over-detailed policies/procedures

Multiple overlapping policies/procedures

Large clusters of texts in key areas of activity, eg:

assessment – 35 texts

enrolment – 15 texts

program approval and quality assurance – 50 texts!

higher degrees by research candidature – 26 texts.

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7. Web reading and information management habits

Institutional policy now lives (or dies) on the web

Everyone is managing an over-abundance of information

Increasingly, people:

search rather than read

shallow read until they’re sure it is worth deep reading

‘satisfice’: select sources of information they trust and ignore the rest.*

* Jason Lodge, ‘Lost in the noise: the rising tide of digital information and how to manage it.’ Presentation at TEM Conference 2011.

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8. Adverse effects

Staff avoid the policies and procedures website

Lack of staff engagement with policy

Numerous cases of policy non-compliance

Even those of us responsible for policy struggle to find things!

Enormous review burden – many texts overdue for review

Heavy advice service burden for policy owners

Operational managers in effect make new procedures by setting out process rule on information/resource web pages.

Staff are time-poor and used to easily navigable commercial website. They have no patience with this tangle – and who can blame them?

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9. So – how to clear a path through the jungle?

To amend/develop academic policy/procedure, same approval path:

requires a minimum of five meetings of three committees

plus web posting for consultation for 2-6 weeks.

Imagine doing this every time a process step changes!

or a government requirement changes.

But to change, we have to follow due process.

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10. Factors conducive to a solution

Emerging awareness among senior management that academic policy is blocking the business

Senior management thirst for short, clear policies

– ‘Move the detail into the procedures.’

HR ran a project in 2009-2010 to consolidate/review all HR policies

– ‘. . . so can’t you do that? . . . say, in the next six months?’

But academic policy is agreed to be more difficult.

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11. Solution in progress

For each area of activity:

1. a single policy – high level rules

2. a single procedure – operational rules extracted from current texts

3. move process steps down into ‘instructions’.

4. each procedure section directs staff to follow the related instruction (hyperlinked).

Here’s an example of how the enrolment cluster will change.

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12. Solution in progress contd

Current set of enrolment-related texts (approx. 100 pages)

Academic merit based transfer of full fee UG students to Commonwealth supported places procedure

Administrative procedures for post graduate fee paying students – 7.29.1.3

Change of visa status of international onshore students: transfer to domestic places procedure

Death of a student procedure

Enrolment of officers of the student union procedure

Enrolment policy (approved December 2010)

Managing requirements for trainees and apprentices guidelines

Missing international onshore student procedure

Procedure for re-crediting a FEE HELP Balance– VET FEE HELP enabled programs

Remission (removal) of debt in particular circumstances – HECS HELP, FEE HELP, upfront student contribution procedure

Student attendance requirement at RMIT policy

Student attendance requirements at RMIT procedure

Suspension of studies procedure

TAFE invalid module enrolment audits guideline

TAFE student attendance and contact record guideline

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12. Solution in progress contd

Future enrolment set (19 pages)

Enrolment policy

Enrolment procedure (with links to the following instructions)

– Death of a student– Enrolment of officers of the Student Union– Leave of absence– Managing requirements for trainees and apprentices– Missing international onshore student– Remission (removal) of debt in special circumstances– RMIT International Services administrative processes for

incoming applications– RMIT International Services administrative processes for

outgoing applications – TAFE invalid enrolment audits– TAFE student attendance and contact requirements

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12. Solution in progress contd

A whole textual cluster is reviewed at once – and replaced – then. . .

Implement new area of activity textual sets thoroughly

Be prepared to review and fine-tune quickly – engage staff.

It takes more time than the one-text fixes we’re used to . . .

but it will save us time in the long run.

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13. Vision

There are far smaller numbers of academic policies and procedures.

The area of activity policy set becomes part of people’s ‘satisficing’ toolkit for making sense of university life.

Staff deep read policy, procedure and instructions relevant to their role.

They engage with reviewing the activity set so it remains current.

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14. Other current consolidation projects

Future assessment set

Assessment policy

Assessment procedure

Assessment – academic progress procedure

Assessment – management of results procedure

Higher degrees by research candidature project

This is being run by the School of Graduate Research.

We are on the working party.

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15. Proposed change to the Policy on policies

Statutes

Regulations

Policies

Procedures

Guidelines

Local work instructions

Blue = mandatory

Red = non-mandatory

Statutes

Regulations

Policies

Procedures

Guidelines Instructions

Local work instructions

And governance?

Academic instructions will still come to a standing committee of Academic Board for endorsement.

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16. We would also like to . . .

renovate the policy and procedures website

and the web pages directing staff and students to policies

and provide regular induction/refresher training on academic policies tailored to various key roles

and prune back the delegated legislation

and . . . and . . .

Questions welcome.