Leadership Foundation

Change Academy

The highlight for me has been the way a group of individuals have come together and a vision… has now been shared across a team who are motivated and enthusiastic and have developed an outcome that I think will really transform the way our university develops in the future

Change Academy is an innovative approach to institutional problem solving and change that brings together teams of people from across the organisation to tackle real life leadership challenges. We can help institutions plan and deliver in-house Change Academies and other change programmes as part of our consultancy offering.

Here are some of the frequently asked questions about Change Academy:

• What is Change Academy and how does it help transform higher education practices?
• What is the History of Change Academy?
• Can we run Change Academy In-House?

What is Change Academy and how does it help transform higher education practices?

In a partnership between the Higher Education Academy and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education, institutions take part in a residential programme which helps teams from across academic and professional services departments to develop the knowledge, capacity and enthusiasm for achieving complex institutional change.

Change Academy is a year-long programme which supports teams from higher education institutions, responsible for effecting major programmes of change within their university.

A key event of the Change Academy programme is the four-day residential experience, designed to encourage the teams to focus their attention on their planned project, encourage them to be creative, and develop and practice a range of techniques to ensure they can successfully deliver their project when they return to their institution.

Since Change Academy was first offered in 2004, More than 90 institutional teams – over 700 individuals – have taken part, the majority from the UK, but more recently with international participation. Projects have covered diverse issues such as student induction and transition; embedding a culture of learning and teaching excellence, and putting assessment at the heart of learning. Whatever the project, the Change Academy programme provides the techniques and support system to enable institutions to be better able to create successful plans that lead to the desired change outcome.

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What is the History of Change Academy?
During September 2004 the Leadership Foundation and the Higher Education Academy collaborated on a new approach to institutional problem solving and change. This involved bringing together project teams of around six members each - representing a diagonal slice across functions - from sixteen UK HEIs, for a 4-day residential event - during which the teams focused on their own organisational assignment. They also benefited from occasional plenary sessions relating to change management; open space and expert facilitation and the opportunity to benchmark and swap ideas with the other one hundred or so delegates from UK higher education institutions.

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Can we run Change Academy In-House?
A number of HEIs that have participated in the national event have gone on to use the Change Academy approaches to support change programmes within their own institutions. We have recently worked with one institution to develop their own in-house Change Academy, drawing on and adapting elements of the national programme with a view to building capacity to develop and deliver future Change Academies in-house by the institution’s own staff. The format and focus of an in-house Change Academy, and the degree of support we can offer in planning and delivery, will vary according to your needs.

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Contact:

For an informal discussion and more information about using Change Academy within your own institution please contact:

Dr Lesly Huxley, Director, Networks and Organisational Development
T: 0117 331 4112

Professor Bob Thackwray, Director of Membership
T: 01582 467 396