MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES AND UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATORS: A SURVEY OF TRAINING NEEDS IN BRITISH UNIVERSITIES
| Date | 01 February 1975 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb009728 |
| Pages | 4-12 |
| Published date | 01 February 1975 |
| Author | R.M. THORPE,B. WHITTINGTON |
| Subject Matter | Education |
THE JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATION
VOLUME XIII, NUMBER 2 OCTOBER, 1975
MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES AND UNIVERSITY AD-
MINISTRATORS: A SURVEY OF TRAINING NEEDS IN
BRITISH UNIVERSITIES
R.M. THORPE AND B. WHITTINGTON
In
the
past few years a
new
debate has started and blossomed among those concerned with
British university administration. It has centred around the lack of specific provision of
training for university administrators. This research is a reflection of this
debate.
In an
at-
tempt
to
provide,
firstly, information
which would
facilitate
the
construction of
a
course ap-
propriate for "middle grade" administrators and, secondly, knowledge of
a
more general
kind on the weaknesses of present administrator training, the authors carried out an at-
titudinal survey by
postal
questionnaire of
52
university
and
university college institutions in
Britain.
Interest
focussed upon the
training
needs perceived by
middle
range
administrators.
This information
was used
to construct
a
course for these administrators
which was
offered
at
the
University of
Bradford in
September
1973.
Further, biographical
and
attitudinal data
were used to attempt to explain variations in perceived training
need.
A consideration of
several propositions
suggested
to
explain such
apparent variations
served to
indicate
the
evi-
dent
need
for more training in these techniques, either through the perceived
need
of
a
ma-
jority of respondents, or through the respondents' self confessed lack of knowledge about
the
applicability of
these
techniques. The authors conclude with
a
call for more non-survey
data based research into training needs and the expansion of specific university ad-
ministrative training in management techniques.
FOCUS OF THE STUDY: THE UNIVERSITY ADMINISTRATOR
The administration of British universities is conducted by career
administrators1. The origins of this occupational group may be traced
back to the middle ages and the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
The number employed within the group have grown
from
just over
400
in
1953 to over 2800 in
1970.
This group is differentiated by function and by
status. For the purposes of this article, we have identified three major
functional groupings namely: Academic and Registrarial administrators,
Financial administrators and Specialist administrators. This latter group
includes Estates and Buildings officers, Personnel officers and Data
Processing
staff.
The administrative training committee of
the
Committee
of Vice-Chancellors and Principals identified
five
major hierarchical
rank-
ings. The middle-grade ranks which form the focus of this study contain
approximately 2500 administrative
staff,
who are equivalent in status to
Lecturers, Senior Lecturers and Readers.
RICHARD M. THORPE is Lecturer in Organizational Behaviour, University of
Technology, Loughborough, England. He holds the degree of
B.Sc.Econ.(Hons.)
(Wales)
BRIAN WHITTINGTON is Research Associate, Organizational Analysis Research Unit,
University of Bradford, Yorkshire. He holds
the degree
of
B.Soc.Sci.(Hons.)
(Birmingham).
Both authors are currently Ph.D. candidates at the University of Bradford.
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