Institute of Technology Ireland – ESTIP Project
Academic managers programme
Academic management teaser – consolidate to expand!
Scenario
Geography
Your institute is located in the north midlands (Longford/ Leitrim/ Cavan), along with
two other institutes. Over the preceding ten years the three institutes had developed
programmes tailored to meet the needs of three large local industries.
Industrial
One of the industries closed due to the recession which started in 2007 and peaked
in 2009. The other two reduced their workforces by approximately 50% over that
time frame.
From 2009, IDA Ireland has been on a major drive to secure new industries for the
north midlands region, due to the effects of the recession. They were successful in
getting two multi nationals and one large indigenous company to locate three major
industrial complexes in the region. One of the conditions was to have ready access
to flexible third level education for their expanding workforce, to meet specific
requirements for their respective industries. It is not yet clear the extent to which
the requirements of the three organisations are different but it is believed they will
be in the fields of engineering, analytical sciences and business support functions.
National education policy
It is now 2011 and a Governmental task force on strategic policy for third level
education in Ireland issued its report six months ago.
Under it’s spatial analysis, the task force identified a level of duplication between the
three institutes in the north midlands.
A number of recommendations were made with potentially significant implications for
these three Institutes.
The task force identified two principal options to minimise the duplication:

Using current student numbers as the decision criteria, allow the institute
with the highest number of students on the course to continue and
withdraw funding from the other two institutes’ courses, effectively forcing
the closure of those courses.

Establish a single course for delivery in each of the institutes, with a view
to minimising duplication of resources while ensuring continuity of course
availability in three locations as opposed to just one location.
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Institute of Technology Ireland – ESTIP Project
Academic managers programme
The task force has recommended the rationalisation of delivery of academic
programmes across the three institutes in the north midlands, which lead to the
same major awards. They have recommended running a pilot process to:

develop one programme (from the existing three), which could be
delivered in the three institutes

establish one application/ registration/ induction process common to the
three institutes.
The purpose of the rationalisation pilot is to free up resources to enable development,
delivery and support of new programmes to meet the future demands of the three
new industries, which are expected to set up in the region in the near future.
Requirement
Divide the group into sub-groups of 4/5. Each group to discuss the scenario outlined
above and answer the following questions:
1. What key information (academic and non-academic) is required to prepare a
comprehensive plan for consolidating three programmes, for presentation to
the Executives for the three institutes?
a. Where would the information be sourced?
b. How would you go about getting it?
2. Who should be involved in this (consolidation) process within the institutes?
3. Identify key academic and non-academic processes/ activities where you
think savings might be generated, to free up resources (academic and nonacademic) to enable new programme development and delivery?
4. In practical terms prepare an outline set of steps and suggested time line for
handling this proposed rationalisation.
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Institute of Technology Ireland – ESTIP Project
Academic managers programme
Instructor notes
One of the principal aims of this exercise is to get the academic managers to think in
terms of other functional areas, when there is a need to streamline existing academic
activities.
Care may be needed to avoid the groups getting bogged down in gritty academic
details.
The focus should be on identifying the need for information from a diverse range of
sources in the affected institutes and the need to involve a wide range of functional
areas in the planning of a solution (Estates, Admissions, Exams, Finance, HR,
Computer services, Library, Marketing, Student services, Other academic
departments).
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