I work in a university. Here's what I secretly want to tell senior management

The relationship between senior managers and university staff can be tricky, especially when academic and staff priorities clash with budgetary and policy requirements.

Managers don’t always ask the right questions to find out how staff are feeling, and employees complain of a lack of consultation. So we asked a range of university staff to share their experiences of this complex relationship.

Lecturer: ‘Universities are the playthings of people who think they’re businessmen’

The relationship between academics and middle-level management is pretty good because they’re both slaves to the same system. But, in my experience, senior management are usually looking to their own careers, rather than to their institution. There’s a cycle of innovation and hype every couple of years as a new batch of managers come in and decide how to leave their mark.

Universities are the playthings of people who think they’re businessmen, but who don’t actually have the skills. Often they’re failed academics. They have no idea how to manage a stable business – all they know is boom and bust. They’ll increase student recruitment as far as possible, and then cut services and sack staff. In my university, when academics tried to call a halt to student recruitment, we were overridden by management. They do not listen to us. They have completely different priorities and don’t have to live with the consequences.

Universities need to become more democratic, and allow staff to regain control over how they are run. Part of that involves a separation of administrative and academic roles, which have been conflated in recent years.

Registrar: ‘You don’t get far by shouting at people’

In my experience, the vast majority of senior managers are drawn from the university sector itself so they really do get it – they understand the issues. Only a small number of people from outside the sector ever really succeed – some struggle to adapt to the university environment.

But there are profound differences between the ways academic and administrative leaders work with their colleagues. It’s easier for an academic leader to be closer to the troops on the ground, and to walk into a unit you’re familiar with.

Problems arise when people think they’ve got to the top and are therefore entitled to all sorts of privileges and perks, which shouldn’t be part of the package. There’s sometimes an idea that, by virtue of your position, you’re entitled to boss people around. But you have to govern by consent – you don’t get far by shouting at people.

Careers adviser: ‘There can be some short-sightedness because they’re not here on the ground’

My relationship with senior management is pretty much non-existent. I don’t necessarily have a problem with that, but I couldn’t tell you any of their names or how to contact them.

I think there can be some short-sightedness because they’re not here on the ground, talking to students and engaging. We’ve had many cuts to services, which everyone is against. But they’re doing it anyway. It doesn’t really make sense.

I don’t mind senior management being far away, as long as they don’t meddle too much. I think the place functions pretty well as it is, they just need to make sure they don’t screw it up too much.

Librarian: ‘There’s a perception of lip-service being paid’

The university doesn’t appear to be short of money. There’s a lot of building work going on and increasing numbers of senior staff are highly paid.

But despite the higher numbers of students, staff numbers are not being increased to the same extent, so there is a high level of stress among staff. There’s a temporary staffing pool which fills gaps in administrative areas. We see this as undermining existing staff and supporting the university’s determination to keep regular staffing levels down.

The university does send staff surveys and questionnaires, but it doesn’t always respond effectively to negative results. There’s a perception of lip service being paid.

Administrator: ‘It’s the little things that wind people up, like getting the name of a department wrong in an email’

The key thing senior management has to do is try not to create a huge culture change and alienate vast swathes of the staff. It’s often the little things that wind people up, like getting the name of a department wrong in an email. Those things jar and make you think: “They don’t know about us.”

In the old days, people rose to the top of the pile. Being a vice-chancellor would be your last job at the end of your career. But now people are vice-chancellor for a bit and then they change institutions, which means there’s a pressure to do something shiny.

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