OPPORTUNITIES FOR IMPROVEMENT IN TEACHING PERFORMANCE THROUGH COLLABORATION

摘要

Higher education is today subjected to an unprecedented range of pressures including increasing student numbers, financial constraints, changing technologies and demand for new skills. This paper explores opportunities for performance improvement in response to these pressures. Conventional approaches to productivity improvement are outlined and their opportunity for application in academia assessed. It is concluded that new IT-based teaching methods, economies of scale and waste reduction through lean thinking may be applicable, but only if the limitations of the small size of academic units can be overcome. In the absence of a market mechanism it is proposed that this may be achieved through collaboration.