What are the barriers and opportunities for continuing professional development for professional services staff in UK HE?

ABSTRACT

UK higher education has seen a shift towards greater businesslike operations and accountability, with increasingly specialised support roles and fewer ‘generalist’ administrators; however, professional training, structured career development and planning, and opportunities for continuing professional development (CPD) have been less well prioritised than similar activities in the academic and research staff groups, and little research currently exists to consider how professional services staff undertake and engage with professional development activities. A quantitative study of professional services staff was conducted in a large Russell Group university, where a significant number of professional services staff reported inequity of treatment compared to their academic colleagues. This paper examines the relationship between effective development review and institutional support for training and engagement with CPD activities by non-academic administrators, and aims to provide practical recommendations for improvements to practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Continuing professional development
• appraisal
• professional services staff
• inequality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor

Alex Holmes is Assistant Registrar (Joint Working) at the Medical Sciences Division of Oxford University, and worked for 13 years in senior leadership roles, most recently as Head of Administration and Finance for the Department of Paediatrics. He holds a B.Sc (Hons) in Adult Nursing and an M.Sc in Higher Education Leadership, Management, and Administration.