RMIT’s 2020 strategy, Ready for Life and Work, is delivered through five ‘Areas of Focus’: Industry, Global, People, Service Culture and Students. While these Areas of Focus target various aspects of the university ecosystem, our presentation describes in detail the work undertaken in the Students Area of Focus. Applying a suite of Program Principles to 82 Programs across the university, the approach in this Area of Focus aims to place the learner, teacher and industry at the centre of creating and delivering contemporary learner experiences, via 'Program Transformation'.
Undertaking Program Transformation at scale to enhance the student experience is a complex task that most universities find challenging. This presentation outlines an innovative cross-university collaboration that was developed in Program Transformation. This model uses agile principles to create unique opportunities for partnerships between the university Learning and Teaching functions, the Colleges, Program teams, professional and academic staff.
The leadership structure, process and working norms which brings this model to life is described, along with the work which seeks to dissolve the organisational silos. Balancing competing demands in a complex and challenging landscape where strategic priorities and business as usual workloads draw on common resources is also explored. The impact of this partnership approach (and our learning from it) is candidly outlined.