The importance and intensity of student engagement within Universities has never been greater (BIS 2015). Across the sector, students engage at unit, programme or department level; through mechanisms such as staff student liaison committees, internal student surveys and external metrics such as the National Student Survey (NSS) (Canning 2017). Higher up the University though, student voices become harder to discern. Their contribution becomes filtered through layers of academic management or reduced to quantitative measures of satisfaction. Worst case, students can be unintentionally or deliberately silenced by the unequal power relations between them and senior staff (Robinson and Taylor, 2007).
This semester I came back from a refreshing and highly productive six month sabbatical to a maelstrom of teaching activity and my first proper management role within my department. As is often the case within academia, the role was new and ill-defined. It involves enhancing teaching quality (whatever that means) across 40 undergraduate and postgraduate units delivered by 18 academics . Three months in, I wanted to share some reflections on how I am adapting to my new management responsibilities.
In my view, management responsibilities in academia are akin to a medieval game of football. There are few rules, many hundreds of players, several often conflicting objectives, and pretty ineffective levers of control. So, here are some strategies for playing the game…..
Here’s a little light reading from Manuela Saragosa of the BBC on the topic of uncertainty, although it still contains some essential truths about how we respond to uncertainties that we face.
1. that we humans are not that good at dealing with uncertainty
2. that we suffer from “ambiguity aversion” – a desire to know what the risks are and what options we have
3. that we prefer risks with numbers attached, rather than open ended uncertainties even when those numbers may themselves be laden with uncertainty or even unreliable.
The study tips contained in this presentation, have been drawn from my 8 year experience of teaching and assessing over 1500 Management of Projects students here at The University of Manchester.
I am also indebted to Mike Courtney and Xiangping Du of the University of Hertfordshire, whose book “Study Skills for Chinese Students” I wholeheartedly recommend to all Management of Projects students.
It is available to buy from Amazon here,
I passed my Viva Voce three weeks ago today and I can honestly say that I am still riding the crest of an amazing emotional high. I chuckle to myself regularly as I reflect that I am now officially Dr Saunders. Friends, family and even my kids have had to get used to addressing me as Dr Fi, although I am sure that the novelty of this will eventually wear off – for them, if not for me!
Looking back, I was a reluctant PhD student. Much cajoling and a couple of metaphorical kicks were required from the Head of my Research Group, Professor Andy Gale, before I took the plunge and enrolled on a part-time doctorate at The University of Manchester. My youngest was only 2 at the time, and it seemed folly, bordering on madness to attempt to squeeze serious intellectual endeavour into my already jammed-packed life. And yet, now that I have finished I am so proud of my achievement that I wanted to share some reflections for those considering whether to embark on their own PhD journey. Continue reading Reflections on completing my PhD→
Professor Fiona Saunders: Project Management Academic and Educator
