UNIVERSITY COUNCIL
PLANNING AND PRIORITIES COMMITTEE
FOR INFORMATION ONLY
PRESENTED BY:
Jay Kalra, Chair, Planning and Priorities Committee
DATE OF MEETING:
February 26, 2009
SUBJECT:
Report on College and Administrative Unit Planning
Parameters
COUNCIL ACTION:
For information only
CONTEXT AND BACKGROUND:
On behalf of Council, the Planning and Priorities Committee is charged with reviewing
the college and administrative unit plans, the university’s integrated plan, the planning
parameters, and reporting to Council.
The planning parameters are the response of the Provost’s Committee on Integrated
Planning (PCIP) to the college and administrative unit plans. The documents contain
both universal messages and individual messages which outline PCIP’s goals for each
unit. The planning parameters also identify key indicators and targets to 2011/12 and
areas of priority for each unit relative to the university-wide commitments of the second
integrated plan. Supporting strategies and available resources (financial, infrastructure,
and capital) are detailed in relation to the specific targets set. In addition to PCIP’s
observations, the planning parameters include a section on the College Plans Review
Committee (CPRC) observations of each plan.
Throughout the fall of 2008, PCIP held meetings with each college and unit to discuss
and refine the documents. The Planning and Priorities Committee considered and
provided advice to PCIP on the draft college planning parameters October 29, 2008; and
on the draft administrative unit planning parameters December 3, 2008.
DISCUSSION SUMMARY:
The Planning and Priorities Committee review of the planning parameters focused on the
key universal messages within the documents in light of the committee’s mandate to
maintain a university-wide perspective on planning issues; individual statements to
colleges and units were not discussed in depth.
The key messages from PCIP within the planning parameters to colleges are the need to
develop benchmarks and indicators of success, particularly for research, scholarly and
artistic work, to create innovation within programs to support enrolment and retention,
and to integrate college initiatives across colleges and in support of the integrated plan.
The Planning and Priorities Committee also supports the development of indicators
within the university’s planning paradigm which recognize excellence in teaching.
Within the administrative unit planning parameters, key messages from PCIP are the
desire for innovation in services offered, the creation of opportunities for student
experiential learning through internships or other employment and volunteer activities,
cost-sharing amongst cost-recovery units, increased collaboration amongst units,
including academic units, resource allocation and reallocation, and the development of
benchmarks to measure performance.
A priority within the integrated plan is the ability to measure performance against
national standards and norms. The goal is for colleges to be able to compare their
performance to that of colleges and programs at other universities, based upon a subset of
indicators relevant to each college. In its review of the college planning parameters, the
Planning and Priorities Committee emphasized the importance of colleges being invited
to assist collaboratively in the development of university-level performance indicators to
ensure these measures are applicable to and consider the uniqueness of each college.
The commitment within the Integrated Plan to “work together more effectively across
unit and institutional boundaries” is directed at becoming a more cohesive university and
identifying those barriers which act as disincentives towards this goal. This is
particularly relevant to the question of resources. A key message within the planning
parameters is for colleges and units to implement those initiatives within the plan which
draw on college and unit-based resources as well as to participate in the development of
proposals and initiatives related to the university-wide commitments. To support the
desired levels of cooperation and collaboration across academic and administrative units,
a culture of integration must be exemplified through broad activities to demonstrate how
units and individuals can cooperate more closely with one another. The Planning and
Priorities Committee supports the integration of college and unit initiatives within the
second integrated plan and advocates for greater reciprocity between and among colleges
and units.
The growth over the previous planning cycle in the number of administrative staff
relative to the university’s faculty complement was noted by the committee in its review
of the data within the planning parameters. Despite the growth in the non-academic staff
complement, concerns about the intensification of workload issues remain, with new
systems and regulations placing additional demands upon units. In principle, the
Planning and Priorities Committee supports the simplification of administrative processes
to allow resources to be employed towards the overall primary goals of the institution for
teaching, research, and service.
Review of the statistical data within the planning parameters has revealed the need to
reconcile institutional data with college- and administrative unit-based data over the
planning cycle. The information strategy approved by PCIP resulting in the creation of
the Chief Information Officer and Information Strategy and Analytics (ISA) Office will
improve the reliability and quality of institutional data, and address the discrepancies
identified by colleges and administrative units within the statistical data provided.
ATTACHMENTS:
The college and administrative unit planning parameters are posted on the Institutional
Planning Assessment Office web site at:
https://www.usask.ca/vpacademic/integrated-planning/planningparameters/