Journal of the Programme on Institutional Management in Higher Education

This paper discusses organisational experiences with consortia in Sweden, especially in the maintenance and further development of a complex national computer based system for student admission and documentation and other IT services about students. It summarizes an approach that may help solve a problem that is common in European university systems: how to manage the transition from centralised government control to greater emphasis on how universities can help themselves. Work is this area has been accomplished through a new organisation, the LADOK consortium, Local Admission and Student Documentation. The consortium for Local Student Admission and Documentation System (LADOK) unites almost all Swedish institutions of higher education in the collection, analysis, and distribution of student records, from admission through final academic records. These functions include individual student and institutional data, and aggregating the data for a wide variety of comparisons. The information is a major factor in allocating government funds to institutions and individual students. The distinctive character of LADOK stems from its emphasis on self-governance and co-operation in: – planning and research; – data processing and analysis; – specification and purchase of hardware and software and special services; – design and supervision of security safeguards. Practically all work is performed on campus by university officers and faculty, or staff under their supervision. HIGHER EDUCATION MANAGEMENT 8 The impetus for LADOK's distinctive organisation were the educational reforms enacted by the Swedish government in recent years, which aim to encourage greater initiative by individual universities and their chief officers. The government's new system for institutional financing of undergraduate studies provides significant financial incentives for innovation and leadership. Funds are allocated to institutions on the basis of individually negotiated contracts between the ministry of education and each institution, spelling out targets that each university is expected to reach in respect to enrolment and student achievement during successive three year periods. A shortfall in student performance, through low enrolment or failed courses, will lead to reductions in financial support. Nor does the new system encourage over-enrolment: no extra funding is provided for students enrolled beyond the agreed upon target. The consortium approach has moved management and development procedures from a centralised, top-down government agency to a nearly flat co-operative organisation. Leadership is in the hands of experienced university officers and faculty, elected by representatives of all member institutions. The LADOK budget is drafted and reviewed by university representatives, and approved by the annual meeting of all member institutions. The performance of task groups and professional staff are reviewed regularly by the Board and outside experts from a wide range of backgrounds. The annual membership meeting controls funding for the next fiscal year, and also some major projects that require two or three year commitments. This ability to plan beyond just the next fiscal year adds stability in planning and budgets for both LADOK and its members. The current budget includes allocations for some projects until fiscal year 2000. Each member's voting strength is proportional to enrolment. The Annual Meeting is the major occasion for all members to meet, discuss the past year's performance, and to elect the LADOK Board. The twelve-member Board exercises leadership of LADOK, recommends senior staff, and maintains general overview of LADOK affairs. Day-to-day management is conducted by the LADOK Group, a department of the University of Umea. The Project Manager of LADOK has a dual reporting relationship – to the Board of Directors of LADOK, and also to the University of Umeå. LADOK's core professional staff of 20 have a dual reporting relationship to their university and to LADOK. Most system developers are employed directly by the LADOK group; a few were hired from consulting companies or a university computer centre. Most analysts, system testers and system developers work part-time for the consortium and part-time for their home institution. The benefits of these arrangements are several: CONSORTIUM GOVERNANCE – EXPERIENCES OF THE SWEDISH LADOK CONSORTIUM 9 – security and loyalty; – political acceptance, when institutions explicitly are included in development efforts; – easier to attract skilled personnel if they can work on challenging projects with interesting colleagues they may already know; – local and central access to knowledgeable and reliable references. Another twenty LADOK staffers work at other member universities. To compensate for such scattering of a small staff, LADOK arranges extensive information routines, by e-mail and WWW and also meetings in small working groups. Maintenance of continuing projects is financed by yearly contributions from Members. Proposals for new activities are financed from a variety of sources: – yearly membership contributions; – special assessments of members; – external sources. LADOK is currently facing several problems that have their roots in a government-mandated revision of curricula and grades for all Swedish secondary schools. The net effect is to force all universities and colleges to adjust their procedures for evaluating the grades of an entire class of incoming applicants for admission. These changes are being implemented against very tight deadlines. For such projects, a special assessment from members is necessary. Some projects are of interest for the consortium but are too large to include in the regular budget of a single year, or involve risks that should be negotiated separately. In such cases the LADOK Board may seek special financing from foundations or commercial sources. Deployment and production of LADOK products at each location are paid by each member, and are normally performed by the various university computer centres, without charge to LADOK. LADOK maintains close communication with the centres, assuring uniformity of deployment, system performance, and control of error rates and system stability. The LADOK group works with external vendors in three ways: – Gifts or no-charge long-term lease of hardware tests portability. Vendors want their equipment to be functional with the LADOK systems, and the LADOK group uses their equipment for development work and testing. – Substantial discounts to universities and the consortium. LADOK software does not compete with commercial products. Vendors may refer to LADOK use in marketing a product, as an indicator of quality. The consortium present a valuable opportunity to gain visibility for vendors. – Co-operation in development projects. Consortium members offer a unique beta-testing environment for new vendor software and systems. The nonprofit environment with qualified users gives the vendor important feedHIGHER EDUCATION MANAGEMENT 10 back on performance under a wide range of operating conditions – and early warning of problems with compatibility and failure modes information. LADOK has the advantage of being able to offer opportunities with such “hot” technology as networking on the Internet. Powerful university networks offer domestic and international co-operation and development programmes with telecommunication vendors. Long-term contracts with the consortium add stability and reliability in development projects. Internationalisation has become increasingly important, both for universities and their students. Students can study one or more semesters at other institutions and have that work credited towards earning a degree at their “home university”. This requires procedures for verifiable exchanges. European certificates of “transfer credits” are being developed within the framework of the EU-financed SOCRATES project. The European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) has been developed and is currently being installed in several European countries and also in the LADOK software packages. Consortium performance is regularly audited by external reviewers. This is extremely important since the calculations for funding undergraduate studies at member institutions is based on LADOK data. The LADOK board regularly engages professional reviewers for performance monitoring of the LADOK group and projects. Periodic reviews by senior system developers from main vendors focus on efficiency in the utilisation of technical equipment. LADOK has found such reviews helpful in training its staff, and in adapting routines to new capabilities. The consortium has built a substantial track record in bringing new software and routines on-line, on schedule and within budget. The consortium has been conservative in accepting new development projects. Usually, the critical limitation has been the shortage of qualified personnel. This focuses attention on core applications of most direct interest to members. Some current projects: – PING system, for compiling and distributing the academic transcripts that a student builds if he chooses to attend two or more universities during his academic career; – standardised system for recording and analysis of secondary school grades; – “smart cards” to authenticate a student's identity, to be used in delivery of sensitive data and control of high-value goods and services. Institutions of higher education, government agencies, and individual students have all been able to become direct beneficiaries of LADOK services. This runs the entire range from standardised transcripts and admission certificates for individual students to enrolment reports for funding decisions. The co-operative nature of the organisation has given the universities an easily-understood form of self-governance and a broad base of support on campuses and in the government. It has become much easier to evaluate proposed system revisions. CONSORTIUM GOVERNANCE – EXPERIENCES OF THE SWEDISH LADOK CONSORTIUM 11 One of the key areas of interest in university management is institutional research, since it can give a steady flow of hard data to orient senior officers and government officials, to help set priorities, and to measure progress. A key ingredient in institutional research is data about students and their progress through the university. In the past, both institutional research and especially student data were largely the domain of government agencies. That domain has now been transferred to the universities themselves, a very important ingredient in helping them exercise intelligent self-governance. Given these relationships, and the central role of student data, we need to pay close attention how we manage the effort. The development of LADOK has given us valuable experience with the use of a semi-autonomous consortium. The time may be ready for exploring how to apply that experience most effectively to other dimensions of institutional research.