HEFCE : Publications : 1999 : 99/54 - Developing good management practice: Invitation to bid for funds

Invitation 99/54

Developing good management practice: Invitation to bid for funds

To	Heads of HEFCE-funded higher education institutions Heads of DENI-funded universities
Of interest to those responsible for	Strategic management
Reference	99/54
Publication date	August 1999
Enquiries to	Steve Egan, tel 0117 931 7408, e-mail s.egan@hefce.ac.uk or
	John Rushforth, tel 0117 931 7416, e-mail j.rushforth@hefce.ac.uk

Executive summary

Purpose

1. This document invites bids for funding in the financial year 2000-01 to encourage the development and implementation of good management practices in higher education.

Key points

2. We will initially provide up to £10 million for the period from April 2000 to March 2003. We expect to allocate up to £4 million between April 2000 and March 2001.

3. Bids may be made by institutions or representative bodies for any aspect of corporate, functional or academic management or governance within higher education institutions (HEIs).

4. The application process has two stages and there is a limit of two bids by any one bidder.

Action required

5. First-stage bids, using the form at Annex D, should be sent to John Rushforth at the HEFCE no later than midday on Friday 22 October 1999.

Background

6. In April 1999 we published HEFCE 99/28. This set out our proposals for a fund to support the development of good management practice. An analysis of the consultation responses is at Annex A. In developing the proposals set out in this document, we have taken account of both the responses to the consultation and the advice of a Management Advisory Group (see Annex B for membership).

Overview of the Fund for the Development of Good Management Practice

7. The purpose of the fund is to accelerate the implementation of management improvements across the sector through:

identifying good practice
providing esteem and recognition for good practice and its further development
encouraging work on the development and implementation of recognised good practice, particularly involving collaboration
enabling new developments designed to enhance effective management and governance.

The outputs and outcomes of projects will be disseminated as widely as possible.

8. The fund will support:

institutional bids
collaborative bids
bids from representative bodies

that address any practical aspect of corporate, functional or academic management or governance in higher education.

9. We will initially provide up to £10 million over the period April 2000 to March 2003, of which we expect to allocate up to £4 million in the first year. Overall, we anticipate funding up to 100 projects. Projects would normally be financed at between 25 and 100 per cent of the total cost; we would not normally expect to fund projects of below £25,000.

How to bid

Who is eligible?

10. All higher education institutions (HEIs) funded by the HEFCE and DENI are eligible to bid. Consortia of institutions and representative bodies are eligible to bid, but will need to identify an HEI through which funds can be routed. In appropriate cases, we would expect HEIs to demonstrate in their bid that they have the active support of the relevant professional bodies.

11. Further education colleges directly funded by the HEFCE are not eligible to bid as lead institutions, but may benefit from a project in collaboration with a lead HEI.

The application process

12. The consultation confirmed strong support for a two-stage application process. Within that we are keen to ensure that we keep the initial costs of bidding as low as possible. Therefore:

a. In stage one we invite outline bids against the assessment criteria set out in Annex C.

b. The Management Advisory Group will consider stage one bids and respond in one of the following ways:

i. Where the group recommends taking a bid forward to stage two, the bidders will be asked to develop a full business case.

ii. Where the group does not wish to take forward a bid to stage two, we will provide the bidder with feedback on the reasons for this decision.

c. The Management Group will consider stage two business cases and may respond in one of the following ways:

i. Where the group recommends the bid, a funding profile will be agreed.

ii. Where the group recommends alterations, discussions will take place with the bidders in order to develop a revised proposal.

iii. Where the group does not wish to take forward the bid, we will provide the bidder with feedback on the reasons for this decision.

Timetable

13. The timetable for this initiative is:

Date	Event
No later than midday on Friday 22 October 1999	Stage one bids submitted to the HEFCE
Early December 1999	HEFCE will either: - invite the bidder to submit a stage two bid and provide feedback to help them do so - not invite the bidder to submit a stage two bid and provide feedback on the reasons for this
No later than midday on Friday 25 February 2000	Stage two bids submitted
End of April 2000	Bidders are informed of the final outcome of the bidding process

How to submit a stage one bid

14. Institutions submitting a stage one bid should:

a. Complete the bid sheet at Annex D, which will be judged against the criteria set out in Annex C.

b. If they wish, submit an optional statement in support of their bid, no more than 1,000 words long.

c. Send 12 copies of their bid to John Rushforth at the HEFCE to arrive no later than midday on Friday 22 October 1999. One copy must be single-sided, unbound and with all pages numbered. We will not accept late bids, or facsimile or e-mail copies.

15. Institutions and representative bodies are limited to a maximum of two bids. However, bids led by a representative body will not count against the institutions’ quota.

16. The Management Advisory Group will assess all stage one bids. In early December we will:

inform all bidders of the outcome of stage one
provide them with feedback
provide details of our requirements to those institutions invited to submit a stage two bid.

Management and monitoring

17. We would expect each project to have named individuals as project sponsors within each participating HEI, and a named project manager. Details of project monitoring, dissemination and evaluation will be agreed with each successful bidder.

Further information

18. If you wish to discuss the bidding process or the initiative more generally, please contact John Rushforth, tel 0117 931 7416, e-mail j.rushforth@hefce.ac.uk.

Annex A

Summary of responses to consultation

Overview

1. This annex sets out the key points from the HEFCE consultation (99/28) on proposals for a special funding initiative to encourage the development and implementation of good management practices in higher education.

2. The consultation sought comments on the:

concept and scope of the fund
allocation criteria
bid process
levels of funding.

We also provided some examples of the type of projects that we might fund.

3. We received 61 responses: 52 from institutions and nine from other bodies. Of these, 50 were generally supportive: 42 from institutions, and eight from other bodies.

4. Other key messages were support for:

a. A broader scope for the fund, for example to include academic management, managing the student experience, change management and project management. The scope of the scheme has therefore been widened to include any practical aspect of corporate, functional or academic management or governance in higher education.

b. The two-stage bidding process. Accordingly we have designed the first-stage bid to be as easy to complete as possible.

c. The overall level of funding.

d. Collaborative bids and those of representative bodies. Recognising the importance attached to the representative bodies, we will not count participation in a representative body’s bid against an institution’s quota.

5. Six institutions also suggested that some funds should be dedicated to taking forward nationally the recommendations of the Bett report on pay and conditions in higher education (HMSO, 1999). Some others saw a more proactive brokering role for the HEFCE. We believe it is for the representative bodies to propose national projects.

6. We will consider whether there is any way we can add value to the bids we receive at both stages one and two. For example, if there are several bids for similar topics, we will explore with the bidders the opportunity for consolidation into one project.

Annex B

Management Advisory Group

Chair Sir Brian Fender
Chief Executive, HEFCE

Members
Dr Keith Taylor, Chairman and Chief Executive, Esso UK plc	HEFCE Board member
Baroness Diana Warwick, Chief Executive, CVCP	CVCP nominee
Professor Adrian Smith, Principal, Queen Mary and Westfield College	CVCP nominee
Professor John Brooks, Vice-Chancellor, University of Wolverhampton	CVCP nominee
Dr John Cater, Chief Executive, Edge Hill College of Higher Education	SCOP nominee
Mr Eddie Newcomb, Registrar and Secretary, University of Manchester	AHUA nominee
Mr Steve Egan, Director of Finance and Corporate Resources, HEFCE	HEFCE

Secretariat
Mr John Rushforth, Chief Auditor, HEFCE	HEFCE

Annex C

Guidance on making a bid

1. To guide institutions on the structure and content of bids this annex provides:

the assessment criteria against which the Management Advisory Group will assess both stage one and stage two bids
details of key information which must be included in all bids.

Assessment criteria

2. The group will assess bids against the following criteria:

a. Depending on the nature of the project, either proven value (financial and non-financial) of improvement caused by implementing good practice, or potential value of improvement to the sector as a whole or in part.

b. Cost.

c. Robustness of proposed performance indicators.

d. Potential application to significant parts of the sector, and the quality of proposals to help embed the good practice across the sector.

e. Senior management commitment.

f. Number of institutions that would benefit.

g. Probability of improvements being sustained.

h. Timescale for implementation.

Information required

3. In addressing the criteria set out above, bids will need to include all of the following information:

a. A brief statement about the overall purpose of the project.

b. A description of the nature of the project and the work to be done – this will indicate some of the key tasks.

c. The basis for claiming that the project represents or will develop good practice. This may be the support of a professional body, a recommendation from a recognised authority in the field, or a reference to a recognised publication.

d. The performance measures that will be used to evaluate the project and an indication of the scale of likely change.

e. An indicative assessment of timescales and resources. This should be a statement of time needed by institutional staff, and costs of equipment, fees, and so on.

f. A statement of funding sought. We will want a general indication of how much, the basis (for example, 50 per cent of the project cost), and how funds will be applied.

g. A list of participating institutions and representative bodies.

Annex D

Bid for funds to develop good management practice

Lead / host institution

Principle Contact (Title Forename Surname)

Post held

Department

Institution

Full address

Telephone number, including STD code and extension

Fax number

E-mail address

2. Overall purpose of the project (50 words).

3. A description of the nature of the project and the work to be done (250 words).

4. Why this project represents good practice.

5. The performance measures that will be used to evaluate the project and an indication of the scale and likely value of potential benefits across the sector.

6. An indicative assessment of timescales and resources needed.

7. A statement of funding sought.

8. A list of participating institutions and representative bodies, with the name and position of a contact person at each.

9. Optional supporting statement
(maximum 1000 words)