Chris Cobb is chief operating officer (COO) at the University of London, a role that is becoming more widespread in UK universities. We asked him for his views on the efficiency agenda, working with commercial partners and innovative approaches to service provision.
How has your IT background prepared you for being a COO?
It has been invaluable. My background is in business systems, which gave me a right to roam around processes and functions across the whole university looking for innovations and opportunities. This gave me a thorough grounding in all aspects of the university business in a systemic sense – how one part of an organisation relates to another and how almost all operations affect student experience and research outputs.
This background has also been helpful when approaching change projects. Many issues are similar from one project to the next and involve a mixture of technology, resource, culture, politics and time. I like to think that I have a good understanding of the complexities and tensions associated with change, although I do not profess to have all the answers.
Another aspect that I find helpful is the ability to work with suppliers and contracts. This is becoming more and more important across almost all aspects of a university’s operations. IT directors are necessarily well versed in procurement and contract management as well as working with a mixture of payroll and contract staff.
Do many of your COO peers have a similar background?
Not many but COOs come from a host of different backgrounds. There are some prominent HE leaders with an IT background such as Alison Allden the CEO of HESA, David Sweeney, the director of research at Hefce and Martyn Harrow chief executive of Jisc.
In terms of management skills there is a lot of transferability. But you could say the same about other backgrounds working in higher education. A legal background and an ability to understand compliance; a finance background also provides a wide grounding in many of a university’s operations. I also know of one or two people coming from a property background.
Historically, most people in this role go by the title registrar and consequently many have come from an academic registry background.
The use of the title COO is a more recent one. It is a more generic term which makes it more accessible to people from non-registry backgrounds and also to those from outside higher education.
Could you reflect on the importance of the efficiency agenda for COOs?
The question of efficiency is fundamental to the COO’s role. All heads of administration are resourceful and can identify where the inefficiencies are. Often the challenge is articulating the need for change as logic and evidence aren’t always compelling enough to bring about a consensus for change. Even once a decision is made, it’s important to maintain the necessary cultural and political momentum to bring it about.
What are your hopes for the forthcoming review of efficiency and effectiveness in higher education, led by Professor Sir Ian Diamond?
One of the important things that Ian is doing, is articulating all the great work that is already underway. For example, space utilisation is a significant feature of Diamond II, and while I’m sure that there’s still more that can be done it’s good to recognise that many have been beavering away on this for an awful long time. Ian’s works surfaces achievements and good practice and stimulates us to go further and innovate. For example over the sharing of space and infrastructure.
In metropolitan areas like London, institutions have already been sharing classrooms and laboratories for some time. Technological advancements and new approaches to learning are also realising space efficiencies. Diamond II also addresses opportunities from sharing big infrastructure, particularly high performance computing. I couldn’t agree more. Since 2002, the University of London has provided a very large hosting service through its two data centres in London and Maidstone. We now host over 300 institutions including a number in their needs for high performance computing.
You are an advocate for developing shared services between universities. How is that working at the University of London?
There are two key benefits that come from sharing, one is efficiency through economies of scale. You can get things that are a lower unit cost if you centralise services in one university or share them across more than one institution.
The other benefit is qualitative improvements through increased critical mass of activity. This second argument is often lost but it’s probably the more important. Sharing enables a broader set of skills. You are also able to manage for absence and disruption because you simply have a larger group from which services can be maintained. The two go hand in hand.
Thirty years ago, the University of London provided services exclusively to its federal colleges. Today, we support hundreds of institutions across many sectors and are currently in the process of developing our ability to deliver a broader range of services and increase the number of organisations that we’re able to support.
The aim is to become the provider of choice for services to higher education. Our experience, track record and implicit understanding of the sector’s needs will ensure our services are tailored, timely and high quality. However, we also recognise that we can’t do this alone and so we’re keen to develop partnerships with others to broaden and deepen what we’re able to offer.
So you are developing plans for further partnership with businesses. What can universities learn from commercial service providers?
Universities are not businesses and students are not customers – education is not consumed and the relationship is not transactional. Nevertheless, there’s no doubt that universities are adopting more business techniques. Increased competition for students has meant that we having to become more adept at marketing.
Students are now better informed and have become more discerning with higher expectations on service levels and facilities. It’s no longer enough to simply administer a student and manage their registration. Their whole experience with an institution needs to be coordinated and is often managed through a customer relationship management system.
Another example is how universities have adapted business intelligence systems and processes to track student learning patterns and suggest interventions to improve learning outcomes. For example, linking learning and administrative data on when and how frequently a student accesses Library resources; participation in the virtual learning environment; lecture or tutorial attendance; distance travelled to campus; child care responsibilities and disability information. Through joining-up these data it’s possible to, for example, adjust timetabling, connect people for car-share schemes or suggest financial or crèche assistance.
As universities develop more business-like characteristics, what are the implications for senior leaders?
University leaders are versatile and resourceful people. They will adopt good practice from wherever they find a good fit. It could be business, third sector or peer institutions. One of the great things about higher education is that we share ideas and new ways of working. Despite being in competition with one another there is still a strong sense of community and a good network of counsel through organisations such as AHUA and Universities UK.
Senior managers in universities all have their own approaches to sourcing expertise. Would you say there is an appetite to tap into more innovative approaches, for example from commercial or academic sources?
The reason why there are so many approaches is because there’s no right or wrong way. Senior managers will have experience of things that work in one environment but not in another. It doesn’t matter whether you use Lean Six Sigma, Prince II or Enterprise Architecture – or whether you use a high-profile consultancy firm or a part-time freelancer. It’s whatever is the most appropriate for the situation, as well as what you can afford in terms of cost and time.
Finally, what would you say is unique about working in a university?
I enjoy being part of something that transforms lives. Like the NASA janitor putting someone on the moon, we all contribute to student development, medical breakthroughs; feats of engineering, development of the arts and a broader understanding of what it is to be human.
Also, by their very nature, universities are a concentration of very intelligent people who enjoy dissecting arguments and proposals and who aren’t lacking in confidence to express a view. While at times this can be frustrating and prolong decision making, often the decisions are far better as a result.
