Policy without (much) pain - University of Ballarat

Policy without (much) pain21. Policy and the websiteHow easy is it to find the web page on which the institution’s policies are published? If you searchon ‘policy’ or ‘policies’ in the home page search field, is the institutional policy webpage firstamong the results? Does that repository contain all the institution’s policies, or can you find otherrepositories of policies on the institution’s website – a page of financial policies, of facilitiespolicies, of health and safey policies, or ofhuman resources policies? Do the same policiesappear in several places on the website? Orworse, does a slightly different list of policies fora particular area of activity appear in differentplaces? Behind these questions is theunderlying one: has the institution achieved aunified approach to policy? Has it recognisedthe web policy repository as a central tool forinstitutional communication and self-regulation?Achieving a best practice web policy repository is a big challenge, but very worthwhile. This is anarea where ideas of better practice are developing as institutions have good ideas and thetechnology advances.We suggest that the attributes of a best practice web policy repository are currently as follows:Has the institution….recognised the web policyrepository as a central toolfor institutionalcommunication and selfregulation?Easy to find – linked from key pages for staff, students, prospective students and visitors, andeasily turned up by the search function on the institution’s home page.Contains all institutional policies – there are no other repositories of specialised policies,rather, specialist area web pages provide links to the relevant policies in the institutionalrepository.Fully searchable – by keyword within metadata and by word or phrase within title or policytext. A repository of .pdf images of policies is not best practice unless the .pdf files aredeployed in such a way that the text is searchable.~ 42 ~