Managing And Leading Strategic Changes In Higher Education

Justifying the focus of the review

Discuss about the Managing and Leading Strategic Changes.

The main aim of this research paper is to develop a thorough understanding of the organizational policies as well as changes and development in the higher education. It can be seen that many common people think that universities are comparatively stable organizations that have gone through little changes over the centuries. However, the concept has largely changed and especially in the last few decades of the twenty-first century, many universities have gone through many modifications through extraordinary as well as fundamental changes. Goetsch and Davis (2014) have opined that the notion of organizational changes, once applied exclusively to the business organizations, has hugely expanded its reach in order to include higher education. Therefore, it can be stated that global higher education has under gone a specific period of the remarkable changes in the first 15 years of the 21^st century.

Consequently, this particular research work would try to analyze some trends that affect the universities around the globe including Australia (Ward and Peppard 2016). Firstly, the focus would be shed on critically analyzing as well as evaluating the nature of relationships between the environments of the organization in sole relationship to a selected focus. In order to reach an attainable solution, a thorough investigation would be made utilizing proper academic literature (Hrebiniak 2013).

In this part, it is required to focus on major key trends that affect the universities in different parts of the globe and these have been mentioned here. The changes have taken place in spite of increased access to information, understanding regarding higher education has remained limited (Hill, Jones and Schilling 2014).

Reports say that since 2000, participation in higher education has significantly increased. Figures released by UNESCO states that student’s enrollment in tertiary education has risen from 19% to 32% in the year 2012. The UK, USA and Australia have among the highest ratios; reports have stated that young people with the parents who attended tertiary education are over six times more likely to enroll (Goetsch and Davis 2014). This below mentioned picture has shown large differences in how equal expansion of the higher education has been in different parts of the globe (Kapferer 2012).

Figure 1: Gross Enrollment ratio in tertiary education, %

(Source: Eden and Ackermann 2013)

While the figures on the proportion of tertiary students enrolled gradual increase, they are slightly misleading, as they divide the entire number of students by the total number of school-leavers in the country. Reports have stated that the US and Western Europe as well as Australia are net importers of the students, while sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia are the net exporters. According to OECD, the number of students that are studying broad has been doubled from 2.1m in 2000 to 4.5m in 2012 (Galliers and Leidner 2014). Reports have found out that in the US, over 800,000 international students make up only 4% of their student’s population, while the UK has around half number of the international students but they make up 20% of the overall student population (Eden and Ackermann 2013). The population has significantly grown in Australia as well and the Australian government puts enough importance on changes in the universities (Cameron and Green 2015).

More number of people is going to university

Cummings and Worley (2014) have stated that the focus on the student’s experience has been an important corrective to the traditional teacher-focused approaches to teaching in higher education. However, the danger is that highlighting the student’s experiences has obscured the necessity roles that the student’s engagement with knowledge plays in the transformative potential of higher education. Lee, Hwang and Choi (2012) have mentioned in his research paper that it is the knowledge that changes the understanding of the students of themselves as well as the world.

Fullan (2014) has stated that as the focus on the student’s experience has increased, so has the intensity of scrutiny on the quality of teaching. The teachers have found out that the previous trend of study is required to change thoroughly, as the nature of study has elaborated enough with the course of time. League tables have suggested that the students who have been in the modern educational centers have received higher quality education and this has been helpful to them (Hayes 2014).  

Bush and Middlewood (2013) have mentioned in his research paper that since the turn of the millennium, there has been an ever increasing expectation for the research work to bring a benefit to the society that funds it. It has been seen that this is now a standard element of research funding in the European Union and South Africa along with Australia (Eden and Ackermann 2013). It is well known fact that the individual research projects contribute bodies of knowledge in a discipline or professional field. It is these bodies of knowledge that lead to impact, not individual studies (Ahlemann et al, 2012).

The most obvious change in student life between 1995 and 2015 is the development of the internet. The internet existed in the year 1995, but most of the websites people use now a day were not there and thus with the advent of internet, the education system has changed a lot. Today, the students prefer to find out their required books and journals online rather than searching in the library of the university. It is expected that this trend is going to be followed in the coming 3 to 5 years, as most of the students found online searching to be more reliable, time-efficient as well as cost-efficient. It is expected that the trend of online surfing for the books and journals is going to evolve more with the course of time (Ambrosini, Jenkins and Mowbray 2015).

People are travelling in different parts of the globe for further afield

Ahlemann et al. (2012) have mentioned in his research paper that people assigned with analyzing the universities would agree that they are the organizations that for several reasons are specifically resistant towards change. Moreover, it has been found that from the last decades, so many universities have shifted towards a corporate management model. The higher education institutions can be termed as the complex adaptive systems that are permanently interacting with their environment and gradually changing their behavior as required in other to survive as well as to thrive or to avoid deterioration (Eden and Ackermann 2013). Both the internal and external factors play one of the major roles in determining their capability as well as willingness to change. A university that operates in an open and highly internationalized context and making the graduates, expert in their specialized factors through rapid developing technologies operate in a complex situation (Alexander 2013).

As a result of that, it is likely to be much more open towards change than one, which serves especially national or smaller regional constituencies and trains the highly qualified professionals for the comparatively stable public service sectors. Fullan (2014) has mentioned in his research paper that complex and dynamic environments in turn might lead to emergence of new internal organizational arrangements that would test capability and willingness to change of the universities (Gibb, Haskins and Robertson 2012). Therefore, this part would be focusing on the different forms of changes in the universities and these have been mentioned in details here:

Source of changes
Externally driven	Internally driven
Types of changes	Planned	Changes caused by policy mandates or the new government regulations (Fullan 2014)	Changes initiated through institutional level strategic planning (Fullan, M., 2014)
Emerging	Changes generated by broad social as well as cultural trends in the operating society	Changes generated by the grass root initiatives

                                                                              Table 1: Sources of changes in the university

                                                                                  (Source: Fullan 2014)

Now, it is necessary to shed light on the possible changes in the higher education institutions and these have been mentioned here in details:

• Strategic goals and mission, i.e. creating a new institutional strategy or modifying the existing one
• Curriculum and teaching methods, i.e. introducing a new teaching new teaching program as well as modifying the existing one for using e-Learning in teaching
• Human resources, where they introduce salary differentiation depending on the performance indicators or changing the rules of getting permanent work contracts (Cummings and Worley 2014)
• Research, development and innovation is the next probable area where focus is shed on enhancing the university-industry cooperation or creating new mechanisms of knowledge transfer
• Student services and welfare, i.e. establishing a new career advisory services
• The culture of the organization is another major important aspect here and this focuses on the emergence of an outward-looking culture that fosters risk-taking as well as the transformation of a bureaucratic organization into a learning organization (Eden and Ackermann 2013)
• Quality and evaluation, i.e. introducing a new standard form of course description or a new system of evaluation of teachers by the students
• Internal organizational and the management structure and in this case, focus is shed on integrating a decentralized university through shifting some jurisdictions from the faculties to the rector’s office or merging smaller disciplinary chairs into the larger interdisciplinary departments (Hrebiniak 2013)

It can be stated that the education is undergoing constant changes under the effects of globalization. Therefore, it can be stated that the effects of globalization on education tends to bring rapid developments in technology as well as communications are gradually foreseeing changes within the learning systems throughout the globe (Sallis 2014). Ideas, roles, values and knowledge have changing roles and thus it has left impact on the society from industrialization towards an information-based society. The global education leaders are looking forward to bring all the technological changes in the field of education and thus the global trends in education are gradually emerging (Sallis 2014).

This part of the research work would try to shed light on creating the framework that would analyze the competencies of the present education leaders on some particular perspectives. With the gradual expansion of time and technology, it can be seen that the pattern of the education system has changed and this is because of the educational leaders.

The rise of the student experience

Sallis (2014) has stated that e-Learning has significantly gone from a niche type of teaching for technical subjects to being a preferred, growing and almost necessary procedure to teach everything. Therefore, it is understood that the technology is gradually expanding and the requirements of the people and desire to learn on their own time. Moreover, engaging people in e-Learning has become the goal of many companies. The education leaders have found out that e-Learning is such a type of learning that has changed the path of learning in different parts of the globe. The leaders have found that e-Learning as compared to the classroom learning focuses more on social interaction as well as instructional materials (Jones and Sallis 2013).

At present, technology has advanced largely and e-Learning is considered as the delivery of learning, training as well as the education program by the electronic means. The leaders have found this highly important and interesting as well as time-saving, therefore, it can be stated that they have applied new ideas of learning. The universities have gradually relied on this procedure, as e-Learning is the learning in which the interaction between the teacher and the student is online (Ward and Peppard 2016).

Apart from e-Learning, the leaders have introduced blended learning and this as well is one of the major educational patterns followed in the present days. This blended learning focuses on a face-to-face classroom in the virtual learning environment. Here as well the students and the teachers are connected online and this smoothes the entire learning procedure. Besides that, digital learning is another major important learning technique that has been embraced by many education leaders now a day. It can be stated that the digital learning takes into account online learning that takes into account blended learning as well as e-Learning. Moreover, this focuses on offline digital learning like utilizing the local software and the digital cameras.

The leaders are capable enough in drawing a reasonable conclusion and in solving any major issues of the workplace. Hill, Jones and Schilling (2014) have stated that the decision makers require understanding as well as analyzing data presented to them before making any major decisions. If any issue arises, one needs to be properly analyzing the business procedure in order to find out what is going wrong. After that, they try to figure the problem and know the procedure of fixing the issue. The leaders have found that analytics are more important today and would be even more important in the near future. Ward and Peppard (2016) have stated that overall, 58% of the corporation’s leaders say analytics are significant to their corporation presently and 82% opined that it would be of high significance in the coming 5 years. 

Quality of teaching under scrutiny

The education system has been changing with the course of time and along with the technological enhancements. Therefore, it can be stated that all the leaders are capable enough to handle the situation that takes place in the organization. They always accept the challenges in the work place and this challenge accepting attitude has helped them to include several new modifications in the educational field.

The leaders have so far met the expectation of the work field and innovation of e-Learning is one of the news ideas that have changed the educational scenario of the globe in different universities.

Online learning and e-Learning have exceeded the expectation and the students in different parts of the globe have benefited from this educational system.

I believe that business innovation is a collaborative affair that runs from ideas, through the development to the implementation. This procedure generally takes into account many people with various expertise. I believe that to achieve an attainable position in the workplace, it is necessary that the leaders are required to innovative in nature. The innovative leaders require a powerful imagination as well as excellent communication skills. I believe that I need to have confidence in the team and the ability of the team members to work together in order to achieve the set target and objectives. I would try to introduce some new ideas of learning in the higher schools and universities, so that the students feel interested enough in higher studies.

I believe that the leaders in any field must have the capability to envisage, eloquent as well as conceptualize the multifaceted and the convoluted issues by making the decisions. It can be stated that analytical skills are highly necessary in the workplace because it makes sure important problem solving takes place to keep productivity and some other areas of the workforce functioning smoothly. I would try to incorporate new technologies in the education modernization system and this would be helpful to bring several new changes in the educational sector.

Since my school days, I respond to the changes in proper direction as well as priorities and this is one of my natures or strengths. Therefore, I believe that this specific nature would be helpful for me to be establishing myself in the educational field. I have proper analytical abilities and thus I am able to take enough large volumes of information and after that produce the result. I am capable enough to deal with any kind of organizational or the work place issues and thus I am confident enough. Moreover, gradually I have learnt to handle the assignments efficiently and have been able to discover a more efficient as well as productive ways to complete a specific task. I have been popular in the schools and universities and thus was known as the problem handler. I used to recognize the problem and then used to create a repair to avoid it from becoming a major issue. Moreover, I am compatible enough to analyze the data from the collected information and then used to come up with a proper solution to a problem.

The impact agenda

I always determine what I want to focus on clearly and this helps me in making the path through which I must achieve my success. After this stage, I list down all the possible sources of data and after that determine which one is the best source of data and which are the useful. Apart from that, I determine the methods and the procedures of gathering data and statistics. I need to exceed my level of excellence, so that new innovations can take place in the education industry through me.

Conclusion

After concluding the entire text, it can be stated that this research work has aimed to find out the changes that have taken place in the last few decades and are expected to change in the coming 3 to 5 years. It has been seen that building a education center is argued in the present years to be enough crucial for the corporations for adopting and leading modifications in the new era of the rapid changes. It has already been understood that as the organizational culture and changes are one of the complex issues, particularly if the changes proposed by the learning organization is to occur very quickly.

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