Higher Education Policy Development & Implementation Workshop

Program Overview

Policies are essential to Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) as they clarify the expectations from various members of the community, provide a framework for institutional integrity, promote consistency, efficiency and effectiveness, help mitigate and manage institutional risks and supports compliance and adherence with accreditation requirements. However and despite the ‘well- known’ benefits of having well designed, consistent and ‘fit for purpose’ institutional policies and procedures; developing these can be a daunting activity for Universities and Colleges; in particular given the very complex nature of Higher Education and the various internal and external influencing factors.
staff who have policy drafting, management and/or review responsibilities with an opportunity to explore how good policies can be formulated, implemented, regularly assessed and reviewed. The program will expose participants to a six phase policy development life cycle process which can be easily adapted to different institutions. The relation between institutional mission, values, strategic goals, internal and external quality assurance and policies will be addressed throughout the program. Various strategies and approaches to improve compliance will be discussed as well as the link between policy compliance and risk management. The program will include a range of individual & group activities and present participants with good practices from across HEIs in Australia, USA, UK and beyond.

Target Audience : This program is intended at Higher Education academic and administrative leaders and staff members responsible for institutional strategies and policy development within academic, academic support and/or administrative functions. This includes Deans of schools and colleges, heads of departments, registrars & directors of student services and other administrative function. It may also be useful to staff working in effectiveness, quality assurance compliance and institutional research offices.

Program Structure

Session 1: Building Your Capacity for Policy Development

  • Education Policy: Why? What? How?
  • The connection between institutional mission, strategic goals and policies
  • Organizational culture and policies
  • Issues and challenges facing policy development in Higher Education
  • The difference between strategies, policies and procedures: why do they matter?
  • 10 reasons why policy fails
  • Experiences and practices in policy development (review from across multiple institutions).

Session 2: Making the Most Out of Policies

  • The role of Institutional Research and Planning
  • Stakeholders engagement with policies development and review
  • Categories of policies in higher education
  • Characteristics of good policies
  • Ensuring compliance and creating accountability
  • The six phases Policy Development Life Cycle Process (PDLCP) : Critical Success Factors

Session 3: The Policy Development Life Cycle

  • Policy initiation
  • Policy development
  • Policy consultation and approval
  • Policy communication & training
  • Policy implementation
  • Policy monitoring, compliance, evaluation and review

Session 4: Putting Together an Integrated System

  • Building an integrated institution wide system
  • Establishing compliance program
  • Compliance and risk management
  • Ensuring ‘ fitness for purpose’
  • Developing institutional policies’ repositories

Session 5: Writing Your Own Institutional Policies
The last session of the program will primarily involve group activities where participants will be requested to work with their peers to:

  • Structure and develop a policy document
  • Develop a policy on policies
  • Develop a procedure