Policy without (much) pain - University of Ballarat

Policy without (much) pain1. Why this book?This book is a resource for staff of Australian and New Zealand tertiary education institutions whoare responsible for developing or managing policies for their institution – particularly those whoare new to such a role. It is also intended for staff who are users of policy although they may notdevelop it.It is our impression from workshops and forums of the ATEM Institutional Policy Network 1 thatpeople who work in tertiary institutions are sometimes asked to develop policies, or improve theway the institution manages policies, without much previous experience. Since 2000 or so, manyinstitutions have put in place resources, support, tools and training for staff responsible for policydevelopment, but this is still not universally the case. Even where the support is available, staffmay not be aware of it. In such cases, they may seek support and guidance from other staffwithin the institution, or from people in similar roles at other institutions.This book attempts to provide that support more conveniently and comprehensively in textualform. It collates ideas and suggestions on effective practice in policy development andmanagement gathered from workshops and forums of the ATEM Institutional Policy Network overthe past five years. These ideas are offered to readers in a spirit of collegial support and sharingof better practice which is the spirit of ATEM – the Association of Tertiary EducationManagement.This is a work in progress. Readers are invited to provide feedback and suggestions to improvethe book: see section 27.There are as yet very few resources of this type: to our knowledge this is the first booklet-lengthwork in this area, at least published in Australasia. For other resources for institutional policydevelopment, see section 25.1 For a brief history of the ATEM Institutional Policy Network and its contact details, see section 26.~ 4 ~