THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE IN A SHARED SERVICES ENVIRONMENT

Dr Stephen Weller

Chief Operating Officer & Deputy Vice-Chancellor

AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY

PRESENTATION OUTLINE • Consideration of student experience as a driving focus for the Sector with

strategic emphasis on recruitment, retention and attainment

• Concept of shared services to support mission and strategic direction and achieve organisational efficiency and effectiveness

• Current developments in the Sector regarding changed business models of activity and Sector approaches towards Shared Services

• Alignment of student experience and shared services through Strategic Enrolment Management and Student Life Cycle

STUDENT EXPERIENCE

A positive student experience has an impact on student retention and further study. Maintaining and improving the quality of teaching, learning and the student experience is a critical factor in the success of universities, both domestically and in the international student market.

Transforming Australia’s HE System, 2009.

STUDENT EXPERIENCE

AUSSE, Barometer, CEQ and the GDS surveys are well established measures that are undertaken sector wide and consider the course experience and the destinations of graduates.

“Student success does not arise by chance. It requires an intentional, structured, and proactive set of strategies that are systematic and carefully aligned to the goal of student success”.

Professor Vincent Tinto

First Year Experience Symposium

Brisbane, 2009

W HAT IS SHARED SERVICES?

SHARED SERVICES CRITERIA

EY UNIVERSITY OF THE FUTURE • Streamlined Status Quo

Some universities will continue to operate as broad-based

teaching and research institutions, but will transform the way they deliver their services and administer their organisations.

• Niche Dominators

Some universities will fundamentally reshape and refine the

services and ‘markets’ they operate in, with a concurrent

shift in their business model, organisation and operations.

• Transformers

Private providers and new entrants will carve out new

positions in the traditional sector, creating new markets that

merge parts of the higher education sector with other sectors.

EY UNIVERSITY OF THE FUTURE Aspects of the EY Transformer Model

• Extend the definition of a higher education ‘customer’

• Disaggregate the value chain to create new areas of specialisation

• Combine traditional education services with services in related industries

• Build a sales model that is predominantly digital and specialist ‘face to face’ services sourced from partners.

• Outsource student services, while retaining ownership of their customer relationships

• Outsource their full suite of back-office functions

SECTOR SHARED SERVICES APPROACHES

• JCU and integration of finance, HR, IT, marketing & student admin. with emphasis on integrated Student Centres

• VU and move to achieve substantial reductions in expenditure and centralise all services with review of academic structure

• Swinburne and initiation of Integrated Services Model aligned with academic restructure and campus closures

SECTOR SHARED SERVICES APPROACHES • UTAS and development of Campus Service Centres for

services around finance, HR, IT, marketing & student admin.

• La Trobe and the announcement of substantial savings through move to two colleges and ‘reduction of bureaucracy’

• ACU and implementation of Futures Project to continue growth of university with Academic Realignment and adoption of Shared Services Review for professional services

SHARED SERVICES OPPORTUNITIES

AACRAO Consulting – Shared Enrolment Services as a potential SEM Strategy. Glen (2009)

SHARED SERVICES OPPORTUNITIES

• Alignment of services that support the aspiration & motivation of students

• Alignment of services that align around a common goal of student success

• Relationship of Future Students, Current Student & Former Students

• Relationship between Marketing, Student Admin. and Faculties

• Identification of recruitment, retention & attainment for student experience

• Identification of the student as the ‘business driver’ in Shared Services

STRATEGIC ENROLMENT MANAGEMENT

Conceptually, strategic enrolment management (SEM) is “a comprehensive

process designed to achieve and maintain the optimum recruitment, retention, and attainment of students where optimum is defined within the academic context of the institution” (Dolence, 1993, 1997)

The principal tenet of the Student Life Cycle model is that “enrolment management focuses largely on managing the relationship between the student and institution through a process of seamless service delivery within and outside the classroom, where the resources of the institution are brought to bear on meeting the needs of each individual student”

(Wallace-Hulecki & Seagren, 2013)

STUDENT LIFE CYCLE

Managing Change with Strategic Enrolment Management Wallace-Hulecki & Seagren, 2013

SHARED SERVICES & THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE

• Student Life Cycle as the framework for student recruitment, retention and attainment aligned to an Enrolment Plan in Demand Driven Market

• Student Life Cycle as the framework for service delivery that is both collaborative and competitive in an environment of Shared Services

‘focus on who receives the service’

as opposed to

‘focus on who delivers the service’

QUESTIONS & COMMENTS