Policy without (much) pain - University of Ballarat

Policy without (much) painexpectation that they can articulate to your institution by meeting only the previously publishedacademic achievement score for admission.If you have been asked to develop/review one policy, is it worth doing the same for closely relatedpolicies/procedures? That is, can you achieve efficiencies by carrying out the research andconsultation for several sets of related texts at the same time? For example, if you are reviewingadmission policy, can you include preliminary consultation on credit policy in the project, sincemany of the stakeholders will be involved in both activities? This may make the consultationsomewhat more laborious, but will save you and the stakeholders time in future. It also generatesa sense of a policy sub-community: staff with this kind of responsibility know that they will beconsulted about each relevant policy.For major policy projects, it is desirable to set up the full apparatus of a project, with: a scope or terms of reference a steering committee a reference group of knowledgeable operational staff implementation, communication and training plans.This is taking policy seriously as a tool for institutional change. As far as possible, however, it isbest to use existing committees and working groups to govern the project, since these meetingswill already be scheduled. For such bodies to be effective in framing policy, however, theiragendas must allow time for the detailed discussion that will be needed.Academic policy in particular can be controversial. Academic staff care deeply about educationaland research policies and procedures: these are integral to their sense of identity as teachers andresearchers. For many of them, however, their identity will have been developed at otherinstitutions before they came to yours, as studentsthemselves or in previous academic positions. EachAcademic policies inparticular can becontroversial.institution will have handled the policy in question differently,with different rules and terminology.It is the nature of academic staff to question and debate.They are likely to object to an education or research policythat is developed by professional staff without the oversight ofacademics. It is unwise to embark on a major policy project insuch areas without a steering group that can be seen to represent all parts of the institution, andwhich includes leading academic staff. This may avoid situations in which academic staff applytheir critical skills to a new policy only after it has been developed.The steering group should include members of the academic committees that will approve thedrafts. This will help reassure the committees that the policy has been developed with input fromtheir members; and steering group members will be present to answer any questions about theconsultation process and choices between options made.Key points/tips:‣ Set a realistic timeframe, planning backward from approval dates.‣ For major policy projects, set up the full apparatus of a project.‣ For academic policy projects, include academic managers in the steeringgroup.~ 20 ~