The PST Project Room is intended to be an informal, collaborative session that provides staff with a more ‘3D view’ of the PST program of work and allows for questions and feedback. If you are interested in attending the PST Project Room from Tuesday 4 October to Friday 14 October please register to attend a session. All sessions will be held on Zoom. During this time, the team will be available for a short 30 minute introduction to the PST Project room, and will provide you with a link to the virtual Project Room that will allow you to look in detail at the progress of PST according to your specific area of interest as well as raise anonymous questions or provide comments.

For any questions about the PST or the Project Room, please email pst@mq.edu.au.

Some are new additions, others are familiar faces who have for years been working in different capacities to deliver quality student services. These key appointments are the result of extensive consultations and many rounds of designs, which are intended to bring to life the Student Services Delivery Model.

Following the redesign there is a broad plan in place to ensure cohesion and common purpose following the Professional Services Transformation (PST).

Importantly, members of this group each hold pivotal student-centric roles in different portfolios so they report to different areas of the University. They will collaborate to deliver student services optimally and consistently across the institution.

The main goal of the student change proposal in 2021 was to differentiate services and support provided to students to enhance their experiences and journey through university. This was done by thinking about what administrative support services are provided to students which are delivered from a shared services centre; what services do they receive as a learner which are delivered by their Faculty; and what services might they need to support their more personalised experiences which may be delivered from the DVCA portfolio or from multiple areas working collaboratively to support students.

The long-term plans are still being designed while the group builds on earlier work scoping what the priority areas are, such as management of special consideration applications, academic progression and enhanced first year experience models.

Meet the team

The group is split into three main areas.

Student Shared Services Centre
These positions report to the Executive Director Shared Services, Maria Claudia Romero, and are part of the VPPS Portfolio.

• Dr Brad Windon, Head of Student Shared Services, oversees leading, managing and developing the strategic and operational services that support and enhance the student experience across the whole student lifecycle from Offer to Completion.
• Jason Ray, Head of Admissions and Scholarships, oversees managing the strategic and operational delivery of international and domestic admissions and scholarship services to support the University’s student admission strategic objectives.

Head of Educational Services – Faculties
These positions work closely with both the Faculty Executive Director and the Deputy Dean, Education and Employability in each of the four faculties.

• Lynn Negus, Faculty of Arts.
• Dr Stuart Upton, Faculty of Science and Engineering.
• Sandra Harrison, Macquarie Business School.
• Hayley Harris, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences.

These people will lead the Faculty’s educational and professional training across the entire student lifecycle ensuring the Faculty meets its strategic objectives.

Dean of Students
These positions report to the Dean of Students, Professor Mariella Herberstein, and are part of the DVC (Academic) portfolio.

• Melinda Chadwick, Head of Student Engagement, Inclusion and Belonging, will lead, manage and develop the strategic and operational student engagement and belonging programs and events that support and enhance the student experience.
• Penny Huisman, Head of Student Wellbeing, will lead and manage the strategic and operational University Student Wellbeing services including assessment, triage, accessibility and clinical services and case management, to enhance student experience and success.
• Kane Murdoch, Manager, Complaints, Appeals and Misconduct, will lead and manage the institutional response to student complaints, academic appeals and misconduct. Kane will commence at Macquarie on 6 June.

ON CAMPUS CONNECTION

The team meets regularly to collaborate on the design of student services and support, connecting up either remotely or on different corners of the campus. The Heads of Educational Services will remain located with their faculties, however from the end of June many of the team will find a new home in 18 Wally’s Walk alongside other professional service areas at the heart of the campus.

Pictured above: Group Shot – Dr Stuart Upton, Lynn Negus, Jason Ray, Dr Brad Windon, Melinda Chadwick, Penny Huisman. Inset top – Sandra Harrison. Inset bottom – Hayley Harris.

That much is true of Information Technology at Macquarie, at least until very recently.

Unfinished restructures and adjustments to the IT operating model, coupled with IT leadership changes and a history of taking on more projects than was feasibly possible to deliver, meant that IT was not set up to provide the seamless technology support offering we needed.

Challenges and Opportunities

When Tim Hume joined Macquarie in June 2019 as Chief Information Officer he saw these issues and many more. Tim’s first six months was a solid ‘listen and learn’ phase to make sure he understood the challenges as well as where the opportunities might exist.

“One of my first observations was that IT had many dedicated staff working very hard to meet the needs of a university that they cared deeply about,” says Tim.

“However, I found that we were not structured or governed in a way that meant we could efficiently and effectively meet the changing IT and Digital needs of the University.”

Tim says there was no clear governance of demand for IT services or projects, and they were seen as both a service unit as well as a provider of infinite, unprioritised projects that were effectively ‘free’ with no real funding governance to ensure that the right projects were being worked on that aligned with University strategy.

“Budgets were under pressure and business units were frustrated with project delivery timelines,” says Tim.

“IT staff did their best to manage the competing demands of the University, however demand always exceeded supply.”

First cab off the PST rank

The introduction of the IT project prioritisation process followed by the commencement of the University Operating Plan helped address some of the issues, but more radical structural change was needed to set up MQ IT for long term success.

Information Technology was one of the first professional services areas to embark on their Professional Services Transformation (PST) journey in 2020 to restructure and meet these changing needs, while embracing the PST design principles of coordination, simple processes, career opportunity, user experience and cost effectiveness.

This wasn’t just change for change’s sake. A three-step plan of work was designed to transform IT and Digital at Macquarie with very clear objectives:

• Bring together diverse faculty and office teams into one central offering to allow more consistent processes and economies of scale as well as better career progression paths.
• Move to a structure that reflected core discipline areas to improve the capability, capacity and depth of knowledge, as well as aligning to the industry standard SFIA (skills for the information age) capability framework. This also supported skills development strategies and professional growth.
• Broaden the remit of the project delivery teams to better align with and meet the needs of the Digital Transformation stream of the University Operating Plan. The project delivery organisation is flexible and scalable to allow for changing funding envelopes and priorities from year to year.

The finish line is in sight

Now more than a year on from completion of most changes, Tim hopes these radical changes for IT  at Macquarie are ones that will set us up for many decades to come. Tim admits this was a hard time on a personal level for all involved, but reminds us that the turmoil of transformational workplace change doesn’t last forever.

“You always come out the other side for the better,” says Tim, who is positive about the changes so far.

“Transformation takes time to get right, but we need to allow it to settle into the ‘new normal’ with regards to operating model and ways of working before we can properly assess the progress we have made.”

The last stage of the MQ IT transformation is the orderly transition of frontline technology service delivery to the newly-formed shared services centre under a Head of IT Shared Services – a role currently being recruited for by Executive Director for Shared Services, Maria-Claudia Romero.

“IT has successfully delivered its savings as part of the PST transformation process and no further job reductions are expected during this transition,” he says.

Creating new opportunities

One of the key objectives of the whole change process, and indeed of the PST objectives more broadly, was to build better career pathways for everyone in the new structure.

A standardised set of position descriptions were rolled out within IT that relied on core skills and competencies and meant that staff could move between roles more easily, sometimes with training or a ‘ramp up’ period to learn new skills or technologies. Management positions were renewed.

Change runs all the way to the top as well, with Tim’s job title recently changing to Chief Information and Digital Officer to better reflect the digital leadership Tim has undertaken as leader of the Digital Transformation stream of the Operating Plan.

Tim says that as one of the first functions embarking on their PST journey, he believed it was imperative to meet with staff and clients in their teams or one-on-one to help ensure the change went as smoothly as possible.

“This part of our transformation was a big investment of time and effort, but this was rewarded with a smooth consultation and implementation process,” he says.

The future is bright for MQ IT

This new way of working will set Tim and his new team of Directors up for success in some ambitious projects he is undertaking. Tim says 2022 is a very full year of delivery, including a large program of work to transition our data centres to the cloud, along with a transformation of our core management systems (student, curriculum and finance), delivering a ‘one-stop-shop’ student portal, transformation of our core learning and teaching systems to next gen digital learning environments and defining our Student CRM strategy – to name just a few!

These projects might sound widely ambitious, and some have been attempted (and abandoned) before. However, the successful streamlining of the Information Technology landscape at Macquarie over the last two years has provided us with an excellent starting point for these transformational projects.

One of the objectives of the Professional Service Transformation (PST) is to create more standardised roles and structures across the University. With that in mind, from 1 January 2022 the position title of ‘Faculty General Manager’ (FGM) changed to ‘Faculty Executive Director’ (FED).

While Neil Durrant and Welly Firmanto have been the Faculty General Managers for Arts and for Medicine, Health and Human Sciences (respectively), David Sams (Macquarie Business School) and Katrina Sealey (Faculty of Science and Engineering) are recent recruits to the roles of Faculty Executive Director.

The new title is consistent with comparable titles and title changes across the University and business sectors. The change in title was proposed in the Faculty Professional Services Workplace Change paper and is the first visible change toward the implementation of the new Faculty professional services models.

This name change is accompanied by a change in position description and streamlines the roles across the University. Previously there were four different Faculty General Manager position descriptions. Now, there is one consistent position description with a shared understanding of the accountabilities of the role.

“The new FED role allows the opportunity to bring together professional services that previously happened in fragmented ways,” says Neil.

“This will see a consistent, coherent approach to delivering professional services, as well as sharing knowledge and information between different types of professional service delivery.”

These Faculty Executive Directors will provide strategic leadership in the development and execution of the Faculty’s strategy and goals. This includes providing expert advice to the Executive Dean and other key stakeholders on the Faculty’s enterprise, financial management, resource planning and management, risk management, infrastructure and facilities, policy development and higher education market trends.

David Sams believes our biggest challenges are also our greatest opportunities this year.

“These include ensuring a safe return to campus at scale for students, especially as international borders reopen; and the smooth transition to the new professional services model, to ensure continuity and improvement of experience for our students and staff.”

It’s exciting to know that the four Faculty Executive Directors are working collaboratively on these big projects and opportunities at Macquarie. We look forward to hearing more from this team in 2022.

Katrina Sealey – Science and Engineering

Katrina joins the Faculty of Science and Engineering’s leadership team from Australian Astronomical Optics (AAO), where she was the Head of Research Data and Software, and the Chief Operations Officer for the Astralis Instrumentation Consortium, Australia’s leading astronomical instrumentation organisation. Over the past three years, Katrina has secured more than $8 million in funding for Macquarie University.

Katrina holds a PhD in Astrophysics from UNSW and prior to joining Macquarie University, was a Senior Leader within the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources. She led the successful transition of the Australian Astronomical Observatory into the higher education sector, and Katrina successfully headed the first Australian departmental gender equity Athena Swan Award for Macquarie University.

“The Faculty of Science and Engineering worked tirelessly through 2021 to develop the FSE Strategic Plan 2022-2026, and I am thrilled to work with my FSE colleagues on this exciting journey.”

Welly Firmanto – Medicine, Health and Human Sciences

After many years as an international student across three countries, Welly built a career in telecommunications systems engineering, healthcare, and higher education in the private and public sectors. Welly joined Macquarie University in 2013 and was appointed to the role of Faculty General Manager in 2015. In addition to his role as Faculty Executive Director, Welly is the Chief Operating Officer of MQ Health, a controlled entity of the University that delivers clinical services through the Macquarie University Hospital, MQ Health clinics and MindSpot.

“I feel privileged to work with teams that excel in the innovative, dynamic industries of higher education and healthcare. With my background in systems engineering, I see opportunities in the new ways of working in the structures created through PST, to help us interpret and navigate the complex adaptive systems of the University and MQ Health.”

David Sams – Macquarie Business School

David was interim Faculty General Manager from early 2021, and is now formally appointed as Faculty Executive Director for Macquarie Business School. Having previously worked at Macquarie University and the University of Sydney, David returns to us from UNSW, where he held roles as Head of Student Experience and Support for UNSW, and Director of Student Experience for UNSW Business. David has a background in Marketing, Communications and brand management and has worked extensively in the university sector. He uses his commercial sensibilities and experience in service leadership – connecting people and processes; creating efficiency and recognising potential – to find a better way toward strategic and measurable solutions to customer needs and business objectives.

“Returning to Macquarie in this new role at such an exciting and pivotal time for the university and the sector is a great privilege. I’m excited about the great work of the staff I serve and the students they’re helping develop into future leaders.”

Neil Durrant – Arts

Neil joined Macquarie University in 2015 as Faculty General Manager with the Faculty of Arts and his role was amended in 2017 to also encompass Director of Strategy. Neil has a diverse background in higher education strategic and operational management. He is a skilled leader with a vision for effective and efficient professional service delivery to support executive academic leadership in delivering an organisational vision for teaching and research. He is passionate about the role of the university in emerging political and economic landscapes. He holds degrees in economics, linguistics and philosophy and has a diverse professional background. He has worked in academic research, occupied not-for-profit leadership roles and has developed business intelligence and information management practices that focus on the use and presentation of data to support business strategy.

“This role will allow for opportunities to represent the Faculty and the University more broadly, and to engage with stakeholders outside the university, which is something I think is vitally important for our University’s success.”

Informed by the extensive staff and student consultation undertaken in the Professional Services Transformation (Ways of Working area of focus), Maria Claudia will draw on her impressive background in service delivery – and expertise in systems technology – to lead and inspire a consolidated services unit whose focus will be on customer experience and continuous process and service culture improvement.

We spoke with the Bogota-born, self-confessed tech-head to find out what makes her tick.

You’ve built an impressive career in service delivery, most recently as Executive Director of Shared Services at the NSW Department of Education. What have you learned about what it takes to deliver service excellence at organisations like Macquarie?
The most important lesson I’ve learned is that it’s all about people.  People are at the heart of  modern shared services, and service excellence is a mindset – having the empathy to engage customers and stakeholders, the curiosity to explore what we do and how we do it, and the courage and the vulnerability to transform ourselves and our services.  No technology can do that.

What are you most looking forward to about implementing a shared services model at Macquarie?
Modern shared services are people-powered organisations that thrive on an information- and automation-rich environment.  Our new model must balance this tension, as the power of data analytics and automation can’t be realised unless you also have a solid customer-centric and service excellence culture, as well as staff skilled and empowered to implement new practices and continually improve the service experience.

What has impressed you about Macquarie?
In my brief exposure to the team, I have been impressed with the University’s ethos.  I have experienced a cohesive and engaged team, driving transformation in an environment of ever-increasing complexity, as the pace of change in education continues to accelerate.  This is a time of uncertainty, but also a time for opportunity.  I’m very excited to be joining Macquarie to help realise the potential of a modern and agile Shared Services function.

How would you describe yourself as a leader?
I would describe my leadership style as inclusive, resilient and adaptable.  I ask lots of questions, as I value collaboration and thrive in an environment where success is achieved by mashing different perspectives.

The qualities and values I encourage in my teams are agility, clarity, accountability and discipline delivery. The most important part, however, is that we learn and grow together and find the time to celebrate and have fun.

You’re originally from Colombia, and completed a bachelor degree in computer science and a masters in database design at the Universidad de Los Andes. How has your background influenced your approach to life and work?
My career in technology gave me the opportunity to travel the world – a dream come true for a geeky girl from Bogota.  As I worked with technology, I learned that success in my projects was solely dependent on the people I worked with and the people I delivered solutions to.  I started to pivot from worshiping technology to embracing the power of people.

As I travelled the world, I also learned that distance was not an obstacle to staying connected to my family – technology allows me to have regular video calls with my mum and virtual parties with family members in different countries.   Technology and people in a finely-tuned balance – it’s what’s made me who I am.

Nearly 400 people from across Macquarie have attended one of ten PST Project Rooms that have been held over seven days, using thousands of sticky notes to offer up their ideas, feedback and insights about key initiatives within the PST program of work.

Each Project Room session has been hosted by a PST Project team leader, who start by taking the participants through a short but comprehensive training session on how to use the Project Room collaboration tool, before opening it up to the groups to get involved.

Participants were able to look in detail at the progress of PST according to their specific area of interest, as well as offer up their ideas and feedback on important areas of focus for the PST program moving forward. Feedback from staff who attended the Project Rooms has been extremely positive – here’s what some of them had to say:

“I really liked the accessibility of having and seeing all the plans and proposed actions in one place. It was also great to be able to contribute my ideas and comments across the entire spectrum of the PST workstreams.”
Pete Boyle, Campus Life

“The introduction was thorough and easy to understand, and the tool really easy to use. This session joined a lot of PST dots for me – there was detail on offer, but the detail was also clearly tied to a larger plan. I found it to be very useful context.”
Sam Cookson, Communications, Group Marketing

“It was very interactive and easy to use and was so great to see the wide variety of perspectives posted. Some interesting discussion was had about university processes and many potential solutions were suggested.  Overall a very positive experience – thanks!”
Louise Carrall, Research Services

“The PST Project Room was a really worthwhile activity, the team created an interactive mural that allowed us to explore our area of interest and see the other organisational units progress through the PST journey at our own pace. It’s great to see the PST team delivering valuable information in new and engaging ways.”
Rachael Kane, Student Administration

Feedback from the Project Rooms will be initially shared with leadership teams, and broader themes as well as next steps will be discussed at an All-Staff Town Hall hosted by Nicole Gower on 24 August.

For any questions about the PST program of work or the Project Rooms, please email pst@mq.edu.au.