Work of professional services staff ‘invisible’ in universities

Academia’s “labyrinth of acronyms, endless forms, and confusing hierarchies” can be barriers for professional services staff hoping to enter the sector, according to a new book.

Surviving and Thriving in Higher Education Professional Services: A Guide to Success aims to serve as a survival guide, or “crib sheet”, to the sector for prospective professional services staff.

With over a decade of experience in higher education, author Rachel Reeds told Times Higher Education that the publication is a “toolkit to succeed” and navigate the challenges of what can be an unfamiliar world for outsiders.

The book deals with the “age-old binary that permeates the sector” between academics and the “vast, often unseen, army of professionals” who are the “lifeblood” of all institutions.

“There can be tensions that come from differing priorities, expectations, perceived status, and cultures. The ‘us’ and ‘them’ polarity keeps popping up. There are academics and then there is everyone else, the ‘non-academics’.”

The work of professional staff is often hugely overlooked within the sector, according to Reeds.

“A lot of professional services roles are by nature about harmonisation and getting things done, whereas for academics, training is about critical engagement and disruption,” she said.

“We’re coming from different positions as to what we’re trying to do in those spaces and professional staff, if they do their work really well, are invisible.”

The language barrier is highlighted as being a particular issue in the book, with newcomers to the sector facing a “labyrinth of acronyms, endless forms, and confusing hierarchies”.

“Lots of things happen in isolation, in higher education and within institutions, so it’s about removing some of that mystery and mystique,” said Reeds, noting the confusion caused by such terms as “registrar” and “post-1992 institution”.

The book explores the difficulties in combining the work of academic and professional staff within the top-down hierarchy of a university.

“What you’ve got is the driven, self-centred academics on one side, and the expert siloed professional services people on the other, and it’s about trying to put them all together,” said one interviewee.

Reeds hopes the book can be used by academics and other organisations such as research institutes to learn more about the work of administrators, and trigger conversations around the work of professional services staff.

“It’s both to equip colleagues to progress and succeed and move boldly forward in their careers, but also [raise] the visibility of professional staff and some of the challenges that they face.”

Reeds said she works in higher education because she is passionate, like many others, about the “romantic idea” of widening access.

“But it also has to serve us as individuals and we need to be able to find a successful and rewarding career and for me, personally, some of that includes challenging and disrupting some of those ideas [around academia].”

patrick.jack@timeshighereducation.com