Making a difference, 21 mid-level administrators in African Universities set out to make change – this doesn’t usually happen!

Mid-level administrators in African Universities administrators are often qualified at Masters level,  energetic and capable.  Yet they can be viewed as little more than low-level clerks with no place to contribute to innovation or efficiency; rarely do they have the opportunity for professional development.  The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) https://www.acu.ac.uk/  has long re

 

cognised that these mid-level administrators are undervalued and there are great opportunities for these staff to make a valued contribution to administration processes in support of learning and teaching, students and academics through projects that improve administrative processes.

ACU had run a successful pilot programme in London in 2015 and now it was time for the programme to be run in Africa.  The University of Ibadan, Nigeria http://www.ui.edu.ng/ stepped forward to host the second offering.  Briefly, the University of Ibadan is Nigeria’s oldest university (1948) “……the first and the best”.  One of its missions being “to contribute to the transformation of society through creativity and innovation”.  So now the challenge was to apply that aspiration to its own administrative systems!

The programme attracted participants from the University of Ibadan, from other Nigerian universities and from Ghana, Malawi and Sierra Leone.  It was held in August 2017 and facilitated by Dr Ian Willis, Centre for Higher Education Studies, University of Liverpool, and Dr Brian Jennings, Ghana Christian University College.  They had designed and delivered the pilot programme.  The pilot was clearly successful having delivered change projects that had, for example: dramatically improved the regulation student accommodation, introduced systematic evaluation of teaching, shifted committee reporting from paper to electronic and introduced staff training on a variety of issues. https://www.seda.ac.uk/past-issues/16.4

Research and evaluation of this first offering had identified key factors in its success, including the overall three phase programme design:

1. An initial phase that required that participants were selected by their Vice – Chancellor (or nominee) and that they did some basic analysis of their institutions and the strengths of their teams.
2. The workshop phase.  This covered input on aspects of university life including general learning and teaching approaches, use of technology and the importance of critical reflection.  It was equally concerned with project development that had a distinctive ‘Strengths-Based approach’.  At the end of the week participants have to present their project proposals for peer review.
3. The project phase.  On return to their institutions, it is time for action.  With structured support, the administrators have to get on with their projects, against a three month deadline.  This is authentic assessment in action!

So the 21 have reached the project development stage – very successfully.

The workshop was a practical, hands-on event where participants were fully engaged throughout.  It was a delight to experience the enthusiasm, energy and levels of commitment.  In an African context, it was often commented that it was ‘very notable and unusual’ to experience an Active Learning approach.  This kept the energy levels and interest of participants sustained throughout the duration of the workshop. ‘Participants’ enthusiasm peaked as the workshop progressed’.

So clearly, phase 1 and 2 of this African based mission to effect change in administrative systems have been successful.  It is phase 3 that will really tell the story, but right now we could not ask for anything more.  We wait to see the differences that 21 mid-level administrators in African Universities will make as they set out to make change.

A few final points to note.  Changing administrative systems is a challenge anywhere; more so for mid-level staff; all gains will be welcomed.  Certificates are only awarded to projects that have been carried out (degrees of success may vary) and with accompanying critical reflection on success or otherwise and on the learning gained.  We received wonderful support from senior staff and administrative staff at ACU and University of Ibadan – Thank you.

Dr Ian Willis, Dr Brian Jennings and Ms Moji Omisade (Communications Officer, University of Ibadan)

First post

A warm welcome.

On this site I am sharing experiences of international HE; mine and others’.  My experiences mainly come from work on the University of Liverpool’s online EdD (focus on international higher education), from a seven year project in Pakistan (enhancing learning and teaching in medical education in Punjab) and from a project with the Association of Commonwealth Universities (enabling middle-level administrators to proactively contribute to their institutions).  There’s more, but those are the headlines.  I also draw on the work of others for a wider range of ideas and activities.