Planning Changes in Higher Education - The Strategie Academic Planning lnitiative (SAPLING)

Abstract

An important problem of higher education in the United Kingdom is the elaboration of suitable and effective procedures for the distribution of funds in conditions of a rapid increase in numbers of students coupled with reduced capacity for funding higher education institutions. In the Authors’ opinion, the accreditation procedures currently in use, the quality assurance systems, the assessment of research programs created by higher education institutions do not provide for an effective distribution and proper use of financial resources. Under the Strategic Academic Planning (SAPLING), The Higher Education Quality Council and Manchester Metropolitan University have launched an interesting initiative to organize a workshop, to which experts from British universities would be invited. The goal of the workshop would be to elaborate effective procedures for the distribution of financial means and for training university employees to apply these procedures. The participants of the workshops have been called upon to undertake common simulative actions to formulate conclusions - tenders addressed to hypothetical financial institutions in the search for funds to realize a specific plan for implementation of the strategic approach to teaching. In the article the Authors describe the sequence and effects of the simulative actions which took place during the workshops.