CHANGE MANAGEMENT

As universities and colleges enter more demanding and competitive environments, they need to change more rapidly than they have done in the past. Staff will need to change the way they work and the patterns of their work; to acquire new knowledge and new skills; to become client-focused rather than producer-focused. Furthermore, there needs to be an understanding that change is not a once-and-for-all event: the inevitability of change, and a welcome for it, needs to become part of the institutional culture.

Rapid change - which is often inevitable - is normally highly stressful to everyone involved. But managements can work to introduce institutional change effectively and productively. Keys to the process are a clear set of institutional goals; a set of defined, activities to reach these goals; a firm timetable for the period to achieve change; and excellent internal communications, including feedback arrangements with staff.

Universitas has worked on change management projects in a number of countries, within institutions and Government agencies.