Performance should not be a dirty word in higher education.
Performance management, performance evaluation, performance targets – all can have an assumed negative bias. But if staff understand what they are supposed to achieve, evaluated with objective metrics and are freed from drudgery, timekeeping and meetings, endless meetings to do their work, performance can be a strong positive for both staff and organisation.
That is exactly why we have called this year’s fresh new conference on HE staff ‘HE People & Performance.’
It is time to explore some key questions that are discussed all to rarely in relation to recruiting, retaining and motivating staff in HE, as the sector potentially faces one of the most turbulent years of policy and environmental change in a generation. To look beyond misconceptions and past practices, and take a serious look at what should change, and why.
This is a conference for anyone with an interest in organising HE better, or anyone wishing to be part of a more effective, efficient sector workforce for the future.
The Future Campus team have collaborated with hosts RMIT University to bring national attention to workforce issues at the conference in a new focused, practical forum.
We have had huge support from HE leaders agreeing to speak, in recognition that staff and HE leaders need to be involved in new conversations urgently, to figure out improved approaches to delivering HE into the future. Vice-Chancellors, key researchers, fresh voices and students have each been selected to provide relevant insights and thought-provoking perspectives in an extraordinary program.
Each session will tackle different questions and provocations, including:
- Why are we so good at educating graduates but not employing them as professional staff?
- Should teaching credentials be required for all academic staff, now student experience is under so much scrutiny?
- Why are there so many AI job titles and should AI be kept away from the IT department at all costs?
- With offshore campuses sprouting around the world as a result of Federal policy, what makes TNE staff feel belonging and how can their contribution be optimised?
- The Accord has focused attention on growing student numbers from underrepresented cohorts, but who is doing the same for staff? Do we have to tell students ‘You Can’t See It, But You Still Have To Be It?’
- Will the gulf between TAFE and universities be bridged by ATEC’s harmonisation plans and if so, what does that mean for staff roles across the sector?
- What do VC's think about the sector’s future workforce? And what about students – who are the sector’s future workforce?
The program has been refined with insights from a range of sector leaders, looking at some of the practical questions they are being asked to respond to.
The FC team will be bringing a range of thought leadership pieces relating to some of the key questions posed in the conference in coming weeks, building a broader discussion about key workforce issues.
One conference doth not a solution make, but we believe the conference will be a useful step towards some key discussions that Australian HE has to have this year.