Transformation Organisation – Administration, Services and reducing Bureaucracy

Team Leader of the Transformation Organisation’s Administration and services theme area, Pekka Saarela describes the work involved in his area.

One of the theme areas in the preparations for Aalto University is made up of administration, services and reducing bureaucracy. The change in the status of universities to independent legal personalities affects the outlining of the theme area’s content. Because the university’s operations are based on a foundation, administration and services can be oriented to focus clearly on enhancing the conditions for research, teaching and artistic activities. In modern universities, administration has often been considered something which limits and controls the basic operations of universities. The controlling nature of administration is based largely on the status of universities as accounting offices, in which the university administration’s role overly emphasises the needs of the state’s central administration.

The support services for research and teaching are specifically emphasised in the theme area. Aalto University’s targets for improving the quality of research and teaching as well as creating a student-oriented culture are the basis for organising services and service processes as well. The roles of the various levels of the universities in steering the services and their concrete implementation are also solved through organising the functions. The need for a new kind of university culture has also been accentuated in connection with the preparations for Aalto University. Community services have been one of the main broad service concepts. They have to do with the well-being of the university community and its visibility and activeness in its environment.

Universities are often criticised for their bureaucracy and over-emphasis on administration. The principles of good governance, including fairness and equality, cannot be denied. In the planning of Aalto University, the reduction of bureaucracy means increasing the smoothness of service processes and eliminating overlapping operations. The academic research and teaching staff should be allowed to concentrate on their own work without having to ascertain the availability or functioning of services or the validity of administration.

The theme area’s work and the recruitment of working groups are in progress. Central working groups include research support services, student services, community services and infrastructure services.

Pekka Saarela, Team Leader, Administration and Services theme area