SOAS
FACULTY OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES
PROPOSED RESTRUCTURING OF ADMINISTRATIVE SUPPORT
FINAL DECISIONS
MAY 2012
1 Purpose of the Report
This report is to update colleagues on decisions made following a process of consultation on a proposed restructuring of administrative support in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
2 Overall aims of the restructuring proposed in the original consultation paper
2.1 To provide a high quality support service for both academic staff and students.
2.2 To address issues around the artificial divide between the Academic Support and Student Support Offices.
2.3 To create a structure which allows a rational, formula-based allocation of administrative resource to support the departments of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
2.4 To create a structure which supports the equitable treatment of all administrative support staff within the Faculty.
2.5 To create a single point of contact for departments and others when they need administrative support within the Faculty.
2.6 To develop a structure which provides clear career development opportunities for administrative support staff within the Faculty.
2.7 To address many of the inter-personal issues which have dogged the Faculty’s administration in recent years.
2.8 To build management capacity within the Faculty’s administrative team.
2.9 To prepare the Faculty’s administration for the undoubted challenges that it will face in the coming years with the increased marketisation of higher education.
3 Amended proposal presented to the School’s Executive Board on 14 May 2012
It was recommended to Executive Board that the core of the original restructuring proposal be implemented, but to proceed with the interim option referred to in the original proposal at Point 4.1, namely that:
3.1 This amended proposal would lead to the creating of two Faculty Offices and the creating of the post of Administrative Assistant to the Dean.
3.2 The Faculty Office on the third floor would service the Department of History, the Department of the Study of Religions, and the Department of History of Art and Archaeology.
3.3 The Faculty Office on the fifth floor would service the Department of Anthropology and Sociology, the Department of Music and the Centre for Media and Film Studies.
3.4 This amended proposal would not only create two Faculty Offices of a reasonably similar size, but would be relatively cost efficient. It would also allow the later possibility, when and if North Block comes to fruition and if all of the staff associated with the School of Arts are co-located in the Brunei Gallery, to have a Faculty Office dedicated to the School of Arts.
3.5 Work was already under way to identify a suitable space for the Faculty Office on the fifth floor.
4 Executive Board decision:
EB noted that it had not been possible to physically locate the support for the School of Arts in a single location due to space constraints. Therefore the alternate option of offices based on geographic locations was being recommended. These were realistic proposals with support from the staff involved and would still address some of the long-term staffing issues.
EB agreed it was vital the new structures were communicated very clearly to students and staff, including in the other faculties and directorates to ensure links were preserved. Structures should not be established around individual staff requirements but improving the service to students and staff. It was also necessary for any terminology to properly reference the new School of Arts and not continue with the old departmental structures.
EB endorsed the proposals but emphasised the importance of retaining key liaison points between the new structure and other faculties and directorates, that the changes needed to be clearly communicated and that the new School of Arts had to be correctly presented. It noted that the physical office arrangements were expected to be temporary until the North Block plans were achieved.
5 Moving forward
5.1 The School’s Human Resources Directorate is now working with the Dean and Faculty Administrator in Arts and Humanities to:
· Agree and evaluate job descriptions for the new posts of Team Leader (Academic and Student Support), and the post of Administrative Assistant to the Dean
· Devise a process for appointing staff to the three new posts
· Devise a process to allocate staff in roles which are unchanged to one of the two Faculty Offices
5.2 Discussions are continuing with the Directorate of Estates and Facilities to identify a suitable space for a Faculty Office on the fifth floor.
5.3 It is planned that the new structure will be operational from 1 September 2012.
Dr John Parnham
Faculty Administrator (Interim), Faculty of Arts and Humanities
29 May 2012
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