Universities are mismanaging performance

This is an absolutely superb article, and lucidly characterises the regime of micro-management and constant monitoring (bordering on bullying) of academics that is now deeply entrenched in so many British universities - yet any complaints by academics are haughtily dismissed as 'fear of accountability', or the insidious 'if you are doing your job properly, what are you afraid of?'. It is ironic that while successive governments have endeavored to created a free market between universities (competing for student 'customers' and research grants), the managerialist regime inside many universities is worryingly similar to aspects of the Soviet Union under Communism - a plethora of five-year plans, innumerable targets, constant monitoring exercises, audits and inspections (to measure progress or success), and an ever-expanding cadre of bureaucratic functionaries to enforce this insane regime. Moreover, failure to achieve a target is always blamed on the individual or Department, never on the unrealistic or unattainable character if the target itself. The system is treated as infallible, so any 'failings' must reside with the staff themselves, who thus need even closer monitoring or more rigorous training courses! To give one example, many universities now specify a response rate (%) for how many students complete the annual National Student Survey (NSS) - and if this figure is not reached, academics staff and Departments are berated by university managers. Yet beyond exhorting students to complete the NSS survey, academics cannot control how many (or how few) students actually do so; it is out of our hands, yet we are somehow held responsible. The consequence is that more and more academics - for the sake of their sanity and self-esteem - are mentally 'disengaging', and paying lip service to the deluge of targets and performance indicators imposed upon them each year. If I apply for a research grant (which I don't even want or need, but am required to apply for as a target) and don't get it, I am not going to think 'I must be useless' - even though the managerial response will be that your application (or your research) are somehow deficient.

Having been on the sharp end of performance management in another career, I agree the model should be applied with caution. In an effort to provide some balance, my experience of FE is that faculty staff are often afforded a great deal of freedom to pursue personal agendas (and income) which aren't always in the direct interests of the University or the paying punters. So perhaps some balance is required before bemoaning one's fate. I'm reminded of another commentary I read today about the ridiculousness of corporate life. It commented that, in future, 'workers (will) identify with occupations, not organisations' - hasn't the academic world been in this happy state for some time now?