20 March 2020 
Naomi Drinkwater, Head of Planning and Data Insight
Essex isn’t the only way, but it’s ok
When Jen asked me to do a blog on our almost-award-winning Essex planning round the temptation was to say; ‘The only way is [just like] Essex’. But I don’t think that would be true or very interesting. Instead, I will talk you through some of the hurdles we have encountered whilst offering a few survival tips. From experiencing dreaded data requests, to eminent professors who know more about stats than you - hopefully (just maybe) this blog might even bring a wry smile to the most jaded of planners.
Here is the spiel. The Essex planning round is worth an estimated Intellectual Property value of millions and we have grown as a university by 48% since 2012. Did I also mention we won ‘University of the Year’ at the 2018 THE awards? Just maybe. Oh sorry, and then there is the fact that we have consistently maintained our place in the top 15 amongst mainstream universities for student satisfaction since 2012…
True some of these achievements have been enabled by a planning process that we embed every year, but never is it straightforward...
Information is beautiful, bad and ugly
In recent months we have been complimented on the beautifully crafted Key Performance Indicator (KPI) reports that we distribute. Behind developing this pretty front, however, were tens of events with hundreds of people with the aim of ensuring that our academics, Governors, senior leaders and professional staff agreed to new KPI metrics and principles. Sometimes these meetings were good, constructive and sometimes ugly. The point is, more time was spent on negotiation and diplomacy than on conjuring up a pretty dashboard worthy of ‘Tableau Zen Master’ status.
My highlight was being grilled publicly on the statistical significance of the then proposed KPIs of NSS and DLHE scores by a prominent scientist called [alias name] Professor Bantonie Flinksmit. These KPIs were dismissed as ‘noise’ and ‘rubbish’. Incidentally, when ‘good’ NSS scores came out for that department the said Prof congratulated us on our swift analysis in time for his 12 noon #NSS tweet!
I’m not quite sure of the moral of that story… however, I’m pleased to report that by autumn 2019 we did have a cracking set of KPIs ready to go and our planning meetings were not a data battleground. Clearly this was down to all the arduous training and consultation events that we orchestrated. Clearly.
Templates, Agenda Setting, Papers and Action Logs
It’s easy to arrange a planning round: just get templates together on a portal and then ask people to fill the forms in - right?
Absolutely not. Below are some good comebacks we have in the past received.
We do now have a dedicated inbox for planning admin, so that no strategic planners are hurt in the process of the planning round administration and roll-out.
Dreaded data requests
The thirst for data is strong here at Essex. This is a good thing. Every year we update our Key Performance Indicators on our BI system with all the information [we think] is needed to help facilitate evidence-based decisions. Every year we try to anticipate the data, the questions, the formatting of charts, and yet every year we encounter the below scenario as something slips through the net.
Scenario: 4 pm on a Friday evening
Next year we will try to catch this before it happens… unless we are blindsided by another regulatory return and we will no doubt be back to scenario 1.
So, there we have it. If the prospect of implementing another planning round in an increasingly uncertain environment has left you feeling a little overwhelmed – I hope that today’s blog has at least made you smile.
Until then, best wishes from a not-quite-award-winning team here, where Essex is definitely not the only way, but it is pretty ok.
#Universityoftheyear #TEFGold #Top25REF
