An independent survey is to be carried out later this month to help gauge the effectiveness of the University of Glasgow’s professional support services.

Image of the Uniforum universities initiativeIt is part of a four year benchmarking exercise commissioned by members of the Russell Group, including Glasgow, called Uniforum.  The aim is to deliver a better understanding of the services that are provided to support teaching and research with the aim of improving these.

Nearly two thousand University of Glasgow senior academic staff and University Services managerial staff will be asked to complete anonymous, on-line questionnaires.  The survey will be emailed to recipients on 26 October, and they will have two weeks to complete it. It’s expected the results will be known about a month after the poll closes.

The Uniforum Service Effectiveness Survey will cover a wide range of support services and their functions:

  • finance services
  • purchasing
  • marketing and student recruitment
  • research administration and support services
  • human resources
  • information technology services
  • student and teaching support services
  • faciliities management

Uniforum predict most people completing the questionnaire can finish it in about ten to fifteen minutes. The survey will ask respondents which of a list of 35 activities are important to them and, based on the responses given, how satisfied the respondent is with each. The online questionnaire is being delivered by a company called Qualtrics and the identity of the University staff completing the effectiveness survey will remain hidden at all stages of the process.

Inspiring People

This exercise builds on the earlier survey of how services staff spend their time for which many thanks are given by the University’s Uniforum team.  Ten of the UK’s Russell Group universities have signed up for year one of the Uniforum exercise, which is run by an Australian company, Cubane Consulting. More UK universities will join the exercise next year. Results from similar exercises in Australia have shown the programme to be highly effective.

Dr Dorothy Welch, Deputy Secretary and Executive Sponsor of the project, told Campus e-News: “It’s essential we have a clear understanding of the effectiveness of our professional services. This is one of the key performance indicators in our strategic plan – Inspiring People Changing the World. The University community will learn the results of the effectiveness survey as we report back on the progress made towards delivering our goals under Inspiring People.

“Uniforum is about continually trying to improve our services to support the University’s teaching and research as best we can. Once we have the information on how we and others deliver our services, and how we perform against each other, we can then decide what to do about it.”

Do you have a question or comment on the survey? Email: communications@glasgow.ac.uk

First published: 13 October 2015

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