Reviewing professional services:
Support Process Review (SPR) at the
University of Bristol
HESA/SUMS Seminar, 24th June 2011
Helen Galbraith, Director of Planning and Deputy Secretary,
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol
• 6 faculties, 27 academic schools, 15 research
centres (each with their own support structures)
• 13,500 Undergraduate students
• 5,500 Postgraduate students
• 11 applicants for each UG place (2009)
• Estate of over 300 buildings, diversely located
• Turnover £350m
• 5800 members of staff (~1900 admin/professional)
Reasons for review
•
Largely driven by financial pressures and need to reduce
our staff cost base:

Existing and planned reductions in Government funding
 Staff costs – pay awards, incremental/ promotional drift,
pensions
 Salary costs a high proportion of overall cost base
compared to peers (HESA data).
•
•
Acknowledged problems in current systems, processes
and ways of working, inconsistent service to staff and
students.
Concluded that more efficient and effective support
structures were needed, saving £4-6m p.a.
Phase 1: Costs and Opportunities
•
Key question: where might we focus our activity?
• High-level activity costing of staff time spent on major
support processes.
• Each manager asked to identify FTE of their support
staff spent on each activity.
• Aim to identify priority areas for further analysis and
subsequent process change.
• Identified 8 broad process areas for focussed review.
• Each area allocated a ‘process owner’, responsible and
accountable for process and its resources & systems.
Phase 2: Detailed Review
•
•
Key question: where are the specific opportunities to
streamline processes and systems?
Key approaches taken to detailed review:
1. Process review workshops.
2. Internal benchmarking of school-level activity.
Process workshops
Aims:
• To understand broad process areas in more detail.
• To identify best and poor practice.
• To look at the use of corporate and local systems.
• To identify the ‘optimum’ process map in each case.
Outcomes
• Inefficiencies identified in every major process area.
• Considerable duplication of effort, with multiple inputting
of the same data into a plethora of systems.
• Multiple points of authorisation = lack of ownership.
Process workshops
School-level benchmarking
Aims:
• To undertake a detailed analysis of support structures
within each academic school in order to understand:
• What support is currently being provided.
• Rationale for differences in structure.
• Examples of efficient practice.
• To look for opportunities to:
• Standardise processes to achieve efficiency gains.
• Remove duplication and single points of failure.
• Improve use and enhance quality of corporate systems.
School-level benchmarking
Outcomes:
• A wide range of approaches to administration.
• Different staffing profiles for similar sets of tasks.
• Standards/practices vary widely – a lot of best practice
which could be shared.
• A plethora of home-grown local systems, some excellent
• What is discipline-specific, what is custom & practice?
(=how much can be standardised?).
• Varying levels of academic input into support processes.
Schools
partnership
Programme
Management
Unit Management
Manage
progression
70:30
Acad:Admin
Student Awards
Maintain units
Unit registration
Student assessmentManage thesis &
& exams
viva submission
80:20
(PGR only)
Admin:Acad
Programme/Unit
costing
Unit Management
Maintain units
Programme
Registration
maintenance
Maintain
Programme
50:50
Initial Programme
regsitration
Student Fees
Programme
Registration
maintenance
Manage
progression
Unit registration
Student Funding
External Student
reporting
Initial Programme
regsitration
Student Awards
Manage student Manage thesis &
assessment & viva submission
exams
(PGR only)
Timetabling
Programme
Management
Maintain
Programme
Student Fees
Student Funding
Timetabling
Providing Sports
Programmes &
Activities
Providing Sports
Programmes &
Activities
Finance
Acquiring Students &
Managing their Progress
Student admin
Advice & Support
Acquiring Students &
Managing their Progress
Providing Short
Course/Partnership
programmes (HONG
KONG)
Advice & Support
Partnership/
programme/
accreditation
guidance
Providinghealth
health Providing
Providing
Providing
Providing career advice and support& pastoral advice
advice and
guidance &
advice
80:20
80:20
support
pastoral
advice
Admin:Acad
Admin:Acad
Supporting
equality &
Diversity
Providing Student
Accommodation
Key
Academic &
Administrative
Process
Key
Pre application
enquiry
Pre registration
management
Administrative
Process
Support
application
conversion
Promote Study
Notification ofSelection decisions
80:20
80:20
decisions
Admin:Acad
Admin:Acad
Open Days
70:30
Acad:Admin
Providing health
advice and
support
Providing career
advice
Providing
guidance &
pastoral advice
Post Graduate
Undergraduate &
Post Graduate
Academic &
Administrative
Process
Supporting
equality &
Diversity
Providing Student
Accommodation
Application
Process
80:20
Admin:Acad
Offer
management
80:20
Admin:Acad
Confirmation of
places
Academic
Process
Confirmation of
places
BME recruitment
Administrative
Process
Housekeeping
50:50
Student travel
Student
conferences
Pre application
enquiry
Pre registration
management
Support
application
conversion
Interview &
Open Days
Notification of
decisions
Selection
decisions
Application
Process
Promote Study
Offer
management
Housekeeping
Student
Associates
Scheme
Academic
Process
Faculty Level
Prizes
Faculty Level
Joint degrees Admin
UG Prizes
Student handbook
Attendance
Monitoring
Plagarism Cases
Programme
Registration
maintenance
Initial Programme
registration
50:50
Manage
progression
Unit registration
Manage student Manage thesis &
assessment & viva submission
(PGR only)
exams
50:50
Student Awards
External Student
reporting
50:50
Maintain
Programme
Student Fees
75:25
Acad:Admin
Student Funding
75:25
Acad:Admin
Timetabling
Providing Sports
Programmes &
Activities
Plagarism Cases
Disciplinary
Cases
Programme
Management
Unit Management
Programme
Management
Unit Management
Maintain units
Attendance
Monitoring
Student handbook
Disciplinary
Cases
Maintain units
50:50
Manage
progression
PGR 50:50
Unit registration
Manage student Manage thesis &
assessment & viva submission
(PGR only)
exams
70:30
50:50
Admin:Acad
External Student
reporting
Initial Programme
regsitration
Maintain
Programme
Student Fees
Acquiring Students &
Managing their Progress
Advice & Support
Advice & Support
Supporting
equality &
Diversity
Providing Student
Accommodation
Providing career
advice
Providing health
advice and
support
Providing
guidance &
pastoral advice
Providing Student
Accommodation
Undergraduate &
Post Graduate
Undergraduate &
Post Graduate
Key
Key
Academic &
Administrative
Process
Administrative
Process
Academic &
Administrative
Process
Pre application
Support application Interview &
Open Days
enquiry
Pre registration
conversion
90:10
management
50:50
90:10
Acad:Admin
50:50
Acad:Admin
Notification of
decisions
Selection
decisions
90:10
Acad:Admin
Offer
Housekeeping
management
90:10
90:10
Admin:Acad
Acad:Admin
Administrative
Process
Interview &
Open Days
Notification of
decisions
Pre application
enquiry
management
UG Prizes
50:50
Student handbook
50:50
Attendance
Monitoring
50:50
Plagarism Cases
90:10
Acad:Admin
Disciplinary
Cases
90:10
Acad:Admin
Faculty Level
Pre application
enquiry
management
Pre registration
Support
application
conversion
Interview &
Open Days
Selection
decisions
Application
Process
Academic
Process
Academic Process
Student Funding
Timetabling
Providing Sports
Programmes &
Activities
Acquiring Students &
Managing their Progress
Programme
Registration
maintenance
Student Awards
Student handbook
Attendance
Monitoring
70:30
Admin:Acad
Post Graduate
Notification of
decisions
Selection
decisions
Supporting
equality &
Diversity
Promote Study
Application
Process
Providing health
advice and
support
Offer
management
Providing
guidance &
pastoral advice
PGR
Confirmation of
places
Housekeeping
Phase 3: Implementation
•
•
•
Implementation of ‘top to toe’ support structures
controlled by process owners.
“One activity, one process, one place” – main focus at
faculty level.
Greater standardisation, greater resilience and
economies of scale:
•
•
•
•
More generic roles focussed on a single process.
Staff appointed to process not to school/department.
Process overseen by process owner – minimal ‘exceptions’.
A renewed programme of investment in IT systems.
• New structures in place by September 2011 but
‘continuous improvement’ beyond this.
Phase 4: Benefit delivery
Key question: How do we measure ‘success’?
• Difficult to energise colleagues about importance of this!
• Focus on benchmarking relative to previous position,
rather than our position relative to peers.
• A series of measures identified against programme
objectives:
•
•
•
•
•
Staff survey – 3-monthly to same group of staff.
Review of academic time spent on administration.
KPIs – response times, volumes of complaints, £ time spent on
key processes, reports from ‘service desk’ systems.
Student surveys – NSS, ISB, Students’ Union survey.
Systems – business cases with identified benefits/measures.
External benchmarking
What did we do?
• Sharing of best practice in managing structural change
• Some use of external consultants (e.g. Estates VFM)
• Sector-wide interest in process review
• High-level analysis of HESA data but impeded by
structural, physical and cultural factors.
• Multiple site visits to explore usage of key systems
• ‘Admin benchmarking group’ with Planning colleagues
What more could we do?
• Further use of HESA data to measure progress
• Benchmarking at school level – e.g. medical schools.
What is the ‘optimum’ structure?
Reviewing professional services:
Support Process Review (SPR) at the
University of Bristol
HESA/SUMS Seminar, 24th June 2011
Helen Galbraith, Director of Planning and Deputy Secretary,
University of Bristol