Chapter 18 Innovation in a Dean’s Office: The Case of Polish HEIs

Abstract

Management of students’ affairs constitutes one of the key elements of the educational process, even though neglected and often treated as a minor issue. In all Polish higher education institutions (HEIs) the units charged with this administrative task are dean’s offices (in Polish, dziekanaty). The pace of work of dean’s offices is related to the schedule of the academic year. While resources are constant throughout the year, the workload differs significantly and peaks around October, when not only the new semester begins but also many students defend their theses and need to receive their award certificates. Work at dean’s office is therefore often demanding with many tasks cumulated in the same very short period of time and repeatable, that is, as many times as the number of students, which can be from 350 to over 700 per employee. This chapter examines innovative ways of managing students’ affairs at selected Polish HEIs. These innovations can be either top-down, that is, provided by HEI authorities responding to the needs of dean’s offices, or bottom-up, that is, worked out by the dean’s office staff (often due to lacking support of HEIs authorities).