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In traditional university management, the president has the executive power and all units are closely related. Is there a different way of school management? Prof. Anna M. Kindler from UBC gave a speech on the meeting of academic administrator on November 27th about the "decentralized" networking management. The idea is to give autonomy to all colleges and be creative in managing the university. 

 

In general, in a college, there are departments, administrative team, Committee, research institutions and other units for enrollment, academic programs, student consulting services, alumni management. Prof. Kindler said that if the university adopts a decentralized management and interfere less in colleges, the whole staff in the university will be more coherent, creative and the deans can put more effort into school affairs. That is to say, the highest level of administration would be the leader and leave the details to the colleges themselves.

 

Take UBC as an example, the spirit of a decentralized management is frequent communication. Every year, the deans would have a meeting with the financial heads of the school about plans and budgets. The dean's office communicates smoothly with every unit. She also proposed some concrete strategies like when making plans, the colleges should be involved and a more transparent funding. She reminds that when promoting the university, colleges should be promoted as well. Prof. Kindler thinks that the leader should be a listener rather than an authority. This is an innovative way of school management for administrators.