Professional staff represent more than 50% of the sector’s workforce, a significant proportion of any tertiary institution’s cost base, and short of annual award ceremonies and monthly newsletter platitudes, remain a black box for many institutions.
The research paper by Peter Woelert and colleagues is important for a number of reasons; in particular laying bare the low priority the sector places on understanding and harnessing the contribution of professional staff, the second-class citizens of the higher education world, both in an organisational context and sector-wide.
The 138 staff from 25 universities who responded to this survey are a tiny fraction of the 77,987 full time and fractional full time staff employed in non-academic roles by Australian universities in 2024 – but is an important first step, asking key questions that institutions typically don’t.
For example, do admin staff cause administrative burden, or do they exist to relieve it? Is it a good idea to introduce new administrative systems to streamline processes without consulting the staff that use it? The paper asks some key questions, noting that the Accord lays the blame squarely at the feet of professional staff for festering red tape and bureaucracy (my colourful paraphrase), while causality of administrative burden is not known.
While professional staff who are subject to restructure and increased workload might not line up to recognise the value of restructures or new processes, the lack of research and insight into the role and function of professional staff points to the burning need for further research.
Working across 30 institutions over the past couple of decades, it is clear to me that there are many opportunities to reduce costs and improve efficiency through restructure and review of spending and resourcing, so that the work that is done aligns with priorities. The fact that so many respondents say admin burden takes them away from their core function indicates ongoing issues.
I have said for the last 10 years that I can save $500,000 from any of the top 30 university’s budgets within a few weeks of setting foot on campus, working on the professional side of the fence – and in fact I have delivered far more than that at numerous institutions. When you have worked across multiple institutions, it’s not that hard. The question is whether the senior leadership are ready and/or able to convince the loudest voices on staff that it is time to change: forgo vanity projects; reshape course offerings in response to public demand; act on known but ignored toxic culture issues; reform processes without affecting quality, control or standards; and/or stop doing things that ‘have always been done that way.’
Outsourcing professional staff reform to big brand consultants who don’t understand higher education and/or leaving professional staff to their own back offices in the hope that they will get time to look at best practice and reform their own areas are both approaches that have frequently failed.
Until professional staff are allowed to develop and demonstrate their expertise, with latitude to act in the best interests of the organisation – and are respected as such – issues with professional staff structures, efficiency and effectiveness will continue to prevail.
