17 September 2014 Matt Sisson, Projects and Membership Manager
Thomas Harrison, Rathbone professor of ancient history and classical archaeology at the University of Liverpool, argues that, although there was once a time at universities where change was to be resisted at all costs, “today, by contrast, change is held as sacred”. Writing in the THE this week, he says that “it feels at times as if we are trapped in a train running out of control”, where ‘enhancement’, restless ‘improvement’, ‘continuity’, ‘growth’, ‘development’, and ‘transformation’ are the buzzwords that are packaged within a strategy and “a steadfast commitment to the overall programme of change”.
“But we also know”, he writes “effecting the ‘transformational change’ that universities seek (improving research performance, say) is a task that is impossible to achieve through any central fiat – and, conversely, that many of the most profound changes are unintended consequences.” As a result he calls for a ‘change to ‘change’’.
“The really revolutionary university leader will be the one who champions consolidation, making do and mending where possible; the one who disavows massive overhaul for its own sake, or who calls for real change: the incremental rather than alchemical sort, which requires patient grind, genuine engagement and common purpose”.