Researching and Scoping a HE and Civic Leadership Programme
Principal investigators: Professor John Goddard, Lynne Howlett, Dr Paul
Vallance (Newcastle University) and Dr Tom Kennie (Leadership Foundation in
Higher Education.
Summary
The proposed project will explore the case for and scope a leadership development
programme and resources to support those managers from universities and their civic
partners who are responsible for building bridges between higher education and cities.
The twelve month research and dissemination exercise will be undertaken by
Newcastle University and the University of Northumbria at Newcastle supported by
the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. Consultation will take place in three
cities selected from the network of Core Cities, (Sheffield, Bristol and Newcastle).
Interviewees will be senior managers from pre and post 1992 universities and their
partners in the private and public sectors.
The programme will provide the foundation for an emergent national leadership
programme, the first of its kind, which will provide both the generic knowledge and
the skills key to partnership working. It will be designed to be widely applicable
across the HE sector and in different cities. It will also be an example of translating a
body of academic knowledge into something of very practical value for the sector and
cities.
Demand for the project
There is ample evidence from national and international case studies (eg. OECD,
2007) that successful partnerships between universities and their localities require a
mutual understanding of the business drivers affecting both universities and the area
and the enhancement of the skills of those undertaking “boundary spanning” tasks.
In England major policy changes such as the Sub-National Review of Economic
Policy which lays new economic development responsibilities on local government
and the DIUS Innovation Nation Review with its new focus on innovative places have
profound implications for the way in which universities relate to their localities.
More specifically, the presence of a university or universities can bestow “city” status
on a locality and “civic” duties on the University.
All UK universities are therefore undertaking similar endeavours of partnership
building and each city is seeking to build partnerships with “their” universities to
enhance the city’s national and international competitiveness and contribute to the
development of inclusive communities. At the same time the universities are seeking
local support for their ambitions in terms of research, teaching and business and
community engagement.
These developments all pose leadership challenges for those responsible in
universities for civic engagement and those outside seeking to “reach in” to
universities. For the universities the challenge of city development impinges on a
wide range of academic functions (teaching and research) and services. Equally,
universities are being asked to engage with a range of activities in local government
(e.g. education, housing, planning and transportation), the health service and the
private sector (e.g. enterprise agencies, Chambers of Commerce, business leadership
teams) and those bodies representing arts, culture and sport.
The cities of Sheffield, Bristol and Newcastle have been selected from the formally
constituted network of Core Cities, each of which is the hub of a wider city-region.
We will work with key strategic leaders in these cities to identify and share best
practice in boundary spanning/partnership working. We will explore: how different
types and sizes of university within different types and size of city can benefit from
collaboration; what works well and why and the specific challenges civic leaders are
facing. We will then seek to identify the generic development needs of the leaders and
managers involved in city based partnership working and the best methodologies for
identifying current and future leaders for development. We will use these insights to
assess the case for and then design a leadership programme with accompanying
resources. Such a programme will enable these leaders to enhance their skills to work
in increasingly effective partnerships and which in turn facilitates the growth of their
universities as civic institutions and the development of their cities economically,
socially and culturally.
Current Practice
This is in an area where there is little good practice to refer to. The OECD Review
has revealed:
.
An abundance of project activity linking Universities and their localities but
little codification of this and translation into people development programmes.
.
Personal development programmes most notably in technology transfer, but
little linkage to other areas such as knowledge transfer via teaching and
learning.
.
A plethora of case study materials, but with an emphasis on the “what” and not
the “how” of civic engagement.
.
Short-term project funding inhibiting investment in the skills of staff fulfilling
boundary spanning roles.
.
Staff development programmes including those for current or potential leaders
focussing on the internal management and higher education as a “closed”
system.
.
Poor connection between leaders representing the university in civic fora and
the rest of the institution.
.
Frequent failures of institutional leaders to communicate to civic leaders what
the university is for and to the academy the nature of civic responsibilities and
benefits of engagement.
Within England the City of Newcastle upon Tyne has been pioneering new ways of
developing civic leadership and the universities have been deeply involved.
Examples include:
.
Establishment of a public/private leadership team, The Newcastle Initiative,
subsequently the NewcastleGateshead Initiative (NGI) in 1987.
.
First (with Coventry) Common Purpose leadership programme supported by
Newcastle University (1984) with 1-2 “graduates” from the university each
year (10% of the total). Newcastle and Northumbria Universities’ DVC/PVC
for Engagement, Newcastle University’s Dean of Business Development, its
Special Adviser to the VC on Engagement and its Director of Business
Development are all Common Purpose alumni.
.
Providing a voice for higher education in the Local Strategic Partnership.
.
Forging links with the cultural sector as part of the bid for Capital of Culture
leading to the development of a £40million university Cultural Quarter.
.
Forging a partnership between Newcastle University, Newcastle City Council
and the Regional Development Agency to develop Newcastle as a Science City.
.
Appointment of a Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Engagement in both Newcastle
University and Northumbria University.
.
Establishment of a HEFCE/RCUK Beacons of Excellence in Public
Engagement jointly with the Centre for Life and Durham University.
.
Partnership with City Council to develop “joined up” working with schools and
colleges to support raising attainment and aspirations of local people, and with
employers to support workforce development and economic growth.
Innovation and Pilot Work
Organisational development in universities has focused on improvement in relation to
the delivery of core functions of teaching and research. Very little attention has been
paid to meeting the demands of business and the community and shaping the external
environment outside of the higher education domain. However university leaders
recognise the fact that a successful city can facilitate the attraction of staff and
students and city authorities increasingly recognise the value of universities as sources
of employment and national and international positioning. Nevertheless little
attention has been given to the mechanisms for building bridges between the City and
the University.
Newcastle and Northumbria Universities and Newcastle City Council, with the
support of the Regional Development Agency One NorthEast, have all been on
journeys in building such partnerships. What has become apparent is that internal
restructuring in relation to the core business can facilitate external engagement since
the university’s partners increasingly expect a corporate response to the question
“what can The University do for us?”. In response Newcastle University has:
.
Incorporated “contribution to the economic social and cultural development of
the North East of England” into its mission statement.
.
Worked with a facilitator from the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education
in building external engagement into its senior management team development
programme.
.
Developed a matrix management structure and appointed cross cutting ProVice-Chancellors and Deans in each faculty.
.
Revised the criteria for academic promotions to include performance in external
engagement as well as in teaching and research.
.
Drawn up a Memorandum of Understanding with the Regional Development
Agency and scoped a conjoint staff development programme.
.
Launched regional leadership development programmes in collaboration with
other local universities including the universities of Northumbria and Durham.
.
Delivered a modular commercialisation programme for academic staff which
included modules on developing ideas for commercial activity through to
launching spin out companies.
.
Launched a Faculty Futures development programme for early career
academics with a strong regional engagement theme.
.
Identified key areas with city leaders to develop Newcastle as place where the
universities contribute to building a entrepreneurial/innovative city, a learning
city, a creative city, a healthy city, a green city, an inclusive city, a well
governed and international city.
.
Been successful in receiving recognition from the United Nations as the hub of
a Regional Centre of Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development,
which is a rapidly-growing network of schools and other organisations
throughout the region who are committed to engaging non-specialists – and
especially the young – with concepts of sustainability.
The University of Northumbria’s response has included:
.
The incorporation into the University mission statement of the wish to work in
partnership with external stakeholders to support the economic, social, cultural
growth of our region and its environmental sustainability.
.
The appointment of a Deputy Vice-Chancellor for regional engagement to
develop and deliver plans which will help achieve this aspect of the
University’s mission.
.
Leadership training supported by the Leadership Foundation, in partnership
with Newcastle and Sunderland Universities.
.
Promotion routes for staff who carry out outstanding work to support the
University’s regional agenda.
.
Partnership working with over 600 local employers and with over 40
professional bodies to deliver workforce development which supports their long
term economic sustainability, and to create sustainable new businesses.
.
Partnership working with local schools, colleges and authorities to raise the
aspirations and attainment of local people.
.
Partnership work with local community groups to improve social conditions in
their communities. Over 1000 of our students and staff work as volunteers in
the local community.
.
Memoranda of understanding with local organisations to improve partnership
working for mutually agreed ends.
It is recognised that many of these activities are still aspirational and much still needs
to be done to develop the people that need to be involved in working across
boundaries at all levels – research, leaders, managers, administrators, public sector
officials, business people, community and voluntary sector workers.
The key challenge is to codify the “know what” and “know how” of current actors in
cities. While the headings; ”the entrepreneurial/ innovative city”, “the creative city”,
“the learning city”, “the healthy city”, “the green city”, “the inclusive city”, “the well
governed city” and ”the international city” could probably refer to any city anywhere,
the comparative work we suggest here is required to identify the generic “knowledge
and skills” so as to allow the most appropriate programme of development to be
proposed for key civic actors and their successors.
We have therefore devised a framework for a six month modular HE and Civic
Leadership Programme which we intend to “test out and critique” with city leaders as
part of the research phase. As it stands the programme framework, which will form
the basis of a number of our interview questions, has three key strands. The first is a
series of themed modules, which depending on what the respondents tell us could
include;
The Creative City
The Healthy City
The Green City
The Safe City
The second strand is a series of interactive skills development workshops on skills
such as;
Stakeholder management,
Scenario planning for cites
Policy and politics
Leadership capabilities for civic engagement.
The third strand is a set of city based “action learning events” in which civic leaders
form the same city would work together on one of their key challenges.
This framework allows the emergent programme to be sufficiently generic and yet
tailored to meet the needs of different types and sizes of universities and cities and the
exact specification of the final programme will depend entirely on the requirements
and ideas of the interviewees. It is essential that the civic leaders themselves are part
of the design of a sustainable HE and Civic Leadership Programme.
Currently there is no such targeted and focussed leadership programme and we
believe that this work will fill the gap nationally and possibly internationally.
Benefits
Financial: Civic projects of the magnitude of Newcastle’s Science City (approx
£200m) and Cultural Quarter (£44m) and Creative Sheffield are examples of major
programmes involving university senior managers and their civic partners. It is
imperative that these highly visible, and resource intensive programmes are
effectively managed for financial, social and often political reasons and the benefits of
these major initiatives cannot be realised unless the people leading them have the
appropriate skills set.
There are examples of smaller projects where university and city leaders have not had
the skills/knowledge to work effectively with for example arts organisations, or where
projects have been hindered or simply failed due to the senior managers lack of
attention to the selection and development of the people delivering them, or where the
projects have become difficult to progress due to obstacles further up the
organisations. The evidence is that leading these initiatives requires knowledge and
skills that are not necessarily in abundance where it matters most.
So although it is difficult to quantify precisely the financial impact of this
investigation, if it contributes to the effective and efficient delivery of even one major
civic initiative, it could lead to savings way beyond the cost of this research and
subsequent pilot programme for both cities and universities.
Non-Financial: Universities and their civic partners are working together on major
challenges including improving transport networks, secondary and tertiary education,
climate change and carbon reduction, enhancing higher level skills, increasing the rate
of business innovation, and supporting initiatives to improve public order and safety.
Such activities can be key to the future success of cities and the country as a whole
and their impact cannot be underestimated. For those city and university leaders who
are delivering on these agendas such partnership working can bring additional
challenges which in turn can add complexity and often tension. Therefore more
confident and more skilled civic actors can only mean more effective partnership
working which can lead to safer, healthier, greener and, more prosperous cities.
Supporting leaders to up-skill in these areas can lead to enhanced performance not
just of the cities as described above but also of the key leaders themselves. Benefits
for the individuals include enhanced confidence and self esteem, improved career
prospects and employability. Adding to the stock of leadership talent is good for the
regional and national economies particularly if gifted leaders are geographically
mobile. It also encourages a culture where identifying and developing the next
generation of regional leaders is the norm.
Continuing: Funding is for a twelve month research phase which will conclude with
an agreed framework for a national leadership development programme supported by
materials such as a “Partnership Working Toolkit for HE and Civic Leaders”.
The next phase would be to pilot the programme and to do this we have the support of
The Leadership Foundation for Higher Education. The Leadership Foundation’s
extensive networks, marketing capability and innovative approach to programme
nomination/applications will make the HE and Civic Leadership Programme more
viable.
The Leadership Foundation for Higher Education is also keen to hold and market the
resource materials. They have particular interest in this work as it supports one of
their new work streams which is being led by Caroline Gipps, Vice-Chancellor of
Wolverhampton, and is entitled Crossing the Sectors- New Rules of Engagement.
In the longer term, if the pilot programme is deemed to be a success the Leadership
Foundation for Higher Education would launch it as one of their series of customised
programmes for senior managers in the sector (plus their civic partners). Once the
programme, which might have the title The Leading Cities Development Programme,
has a recognised reputation for quality and value, like for instance the Change
Academy, places could be marketed to leaders from HE and the private/public sector
with the final aim of the programme being self funding.
Clearly all case studies, resource materials and articles would be a lasting output from
the project as would its inclusion in John Goddard’s planned book: The University
and the City which is being sponsored by a Leverhulme Trust Emeritus Fellowship.
Annex Research Team Biographies
Professor John Goddard
John Goddard is emeritus Professor of Regional Development Studies at Newcastle
University UK. He was previously Deputy Vice-Chancellor with responsibility for
the University’s links with the city and region, in particular the development of
Newcastle as one of the UK’s six Science Cities.
As DVC he also led the
implementation of a major restructuring of the University and the installation of an
institution wide management information system (SAP R3).
John’s academic background is in economic geography. He founded and led the
University’s Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS) from
1977 to 1998 and directed numerous academic and policy research projects on the
role of innovation in territorial development.
Within the UK John contributed to the Dearing Review of Higher Education through
a Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals report on Universities and
Communities and in subsequent work for the Higher Education Funding Council for
England (HEFCE) and Universities UK (UUK) on the Regional Mission of Higher
Education.
Internationally John has been academic leader of an OECD programme now
published as Higher Education and Regions: Globally Competitive, Regionally
Engaged (2007). He has also led several reviews of regional engagement by Finnish
Universities sponsored by the Finnish Higher Education Evaluation Council.
John was a lecturer at LSE from 1968 to 1975 prior to moving to Newcastle. He was
awarded an OBE in 1986 and the Victoria Medal of the Royal Geographical Society
in 1992 and elected a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences in 2004.
Dr Tom Kennie
Tom Kennie is a founding director of the Ranmore Consulting Group
(www.ranmore.co.uk). He works with a range of knowledge based organisations
particularly in higher education but also in the professional service sector (e.g. firms
of chartered surveyors, lawyers and software companies). He is also a Non Executive
Advisor to the Leadership Foundation for HE.
For the past 7 years he has been co-director of the national Top Management
Programme for Higher Education (TMP) now run by the Leadership Foundation for
Higher Education. He has also been responsible for two further LFHE programmes
concerned relevant to this bid – The Strategic Collaboration Development Programme
(SCDP) and the ‘Leading Partnerships’ programme. He also has experience of
working with over 40 higher education institutions on leadership and management
development activities. His work ranges from:
The design and delivery of tailored leadership and management development
programmes,
The design and facilitation of a-way-days for management teams,
Consultancy to support the implementation of major change projects, and
One-to-one coaching for senior staff.
Prior to moving into consultancy 12 years ago he spent 6 years as Director of Human
Resources for DTZ Debenham Thorpe, an international firm of property advisors and
2 years as Head of Training and Development for Balfour Beatty an international
engineering company. He has also been a full-time academic spending 8 years as
Head of Surveying in the School of Engineering at the University of Surrey and 4
years at the University of Technology in Kingston, Jamaica. In his earlier career he
worked as a chartered surveyor in the construction and offshore oil and gas sectors.
Tom’s academic background has included studying geography and topographic
sciences (BSc, MAppSci, University of Glasgow), remote sensing and GIS (PhD,
Imperial College, London) and business management (MBA, Roffey Park
Management Institute, University of Sussex). Professionally he is qualified as a
member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS), the Institute of
Personnel and Development (MIPD) and the Institute of Management Consulting
(Certified Management Consultant (CMC)).
He is a Visiting Professor at Nottingham Business School and the School of The Built
Environment at Salford University he is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of
Technology, Sydney. From 1996-2003 he was one of three Vice Presidents of the
International Federation of Surveyors.
Lynne Howlett
Lynne Howlett is Newcastle University’s Leadership and Management Development
Adviser, employed to facilitate the development of its most senior leaders in line with
the University’s business goals and priorities. This includes identifying leadership
talent and supporting and developing those leaders for the future. Lynne works to
ensure that Newcastle University has key leaders in place with the necessary skills to
take the business forward over the next 5-10 years.
Lynne’s current areas of interest include leadership talent management processes,
leadership frameworks, development centres and executive level coaching. She works
on a collaborative Academic Leaders Programme with Durham University and with
five regional universities on a North East Preparing for Strategic Leadership
Programme. Recently she has contributed to a number of sector working groups
looking at succession management for leaders in Higher Education.
Lynne’s work in the field of leadership succession have won her a Leadership
Foundation Fellowship and in 2006, a Times Higher award for Outstanding
Contribution to Leadership and Management Development.
Her previous experience in human resources and training and development was
gained in retailing and manufacturing with the John Lewis Partnership and Cussons
UK Ltd, a manufacturer of toiletries and household products where amongst other
things she gained the British Psychological Society’s Level A and B license to use a
range of psychometric tools.
Lynne holds a degree in English from Newcastle University, a Postgraduate
qualification in Human Resource Management and is a Fellow of the Chartered
Institute of Personnel and Development.
Dr Paul Vallance
Dr Paul Vallance is Research Associate in the Centre for Urban and Regional
Development Studies (CURDS), Newcastle University. He completed his MA Human
Geography Research (awarded with distinction) (2004) and ESRC-funded PhD (2008)
in Newcastle University. His PhD investigated knowledge and innovation in the UK
Videogames Development Sector. His current work in CURDS focuses on cities and
university engagement.
In 2004 he was awarded the Miller prize for the best inter-faculty performance in
research training modules for the research masters programmes in Newcastle
University. He has successfully completed qualitative interview-led research projects
for both his MA and PHD, as well doing various pieces of research assistant work on
other projects in CURDS during this time. He published one peer reviewed journal
article during his PHD and is currently working on producing several more papers out
of this research.