Summary
This case study shows a leadership team preparing for a new University College (UCLL) which undertook a systemic development including: policy (preparing, making and
support) and tools and then gives a few practical examples of operational successes. The approach the development team used, shifted the mindset at the local level (institutional and personal) and as such created an extremely deep
impact. A video showing why the UPBEAT process work well, bottom left.
Major Learning point for Citizen Enablement
The local Citizen Enablers, helped develop the conditions, institutional parameters (internal & within the whole eco system); they also introduced a more systemic mindset using an operational model with its own support system and tool set. They went further by translating their ideas into real, workable and lasting practice in the college and for the region. This was done successfully in ALL subject areas of the college. This overall development shows how a team of citizen and learning aware academic leaders can use the best principles of ‘positive deviance’ to change the way a whole college so it can positively learn to help it’s regions citizens.
The Case
At University College Leuven Limburg, in Genk, Belgium, they do things differently from other universities. Their thinking is still based on applied research of the highest rigour, but they believe in challenging the status quo, in order to make a real difference in the real world. While applied in nature, their research was professional and vocation based, rather than the norm in academe only to engage in something more pure. As a result they helped invent another set of parameters of what research is, can be, and meant to be for the various stakeholders the new college would eventually become involved.
They sought external support and gained a great deal of knowledge of what to do as active participants in the PASCAL-PURE project which explored the development of colleges like theirs and ones in the region. In particular they took part in fact finding visits in Flanders, developed a research project there coordinated by VLHORA, wrote a conclusions book and organised a conference summarising their findings. They also took part in other PASCAL-PURE events in Kent and Essex.
These experiences led them to challenge the status quo and show the importance of working with the community and local businesses as strategic partners to choose a problem all believe is worthy to consider. They then work together to co-design and co-produce new products and processes that are not only ‘fit-for-purpose’, in a fast changing world, but enable their partners, and themselves, to flourish as a result.
Through UCLL’s deep and meaningful collaborations with their partners, they developed leading edge solutions of high impact, which, as a result, lead to sustainable outcomes. They also continuously questioned what they had done together in the past in order to be even smarter and more far-reaching for the future. This is a sort of ‘presencing’ for their approach and it went hand-in-hand with definitions of the current and mid/long term trends they identified for their region; this was important because it enabled participation in the development and refurbishing plans of their province. And it also happened to enable them to engender conversations of how to get the best from each other as well as their province. In this way their innovations became wealth creating for all.
They used PUMR’s guiding themes to develop programmes of work that truly enabled wealth creating growth for local citizens and a blended learning approach shown diagrammatically above. Michael Joris and Ria Bollen, key members of staff at the college who led their Citizen Enablement, also wrote a testimonial praising the approach, and we quote, ‘it helped UCLL to redefine and benchmark its organisation and operational issues; a fuller version of the testimonial is available on request. Especially in the field of participation with citizens and regional partners UCLL were masters. Not only did they supply their staff with a framework and focus, they provided efficient and effective coaching to help them and also a methodology, with a toolset, to achieve their overarching objectives.
With all the changes and challenges a College facing a new partnership has, with another college, to form the larger UCLL, its leaders realised they needed to communicate the new vision and support staff tasked with delivering its goals. As a result things changed for the benefit of those in the college and they are still on course as we speak now. The participation in PURE-PUMR and what they learned and developed then has clearly been taken into the DNA of the new college. In fact they created a systemic and system theoretical approach, but at the same time many colleagues were involved in this new mindset that is still present today.
In the flat structure of such a new university college, this required “leadership with a light hand”, rather than a controlling approach. So, their leadership development enabled academic leaders with a common understanding of what they need to do, to get everyone delivering to the best of their abilities. The PUMR approach also advised that Action Learning – a group process that enabled participants to tackle an issue they are facing that has no obvious solution – could become a technique which might help deliver solutions creating real impact. Action learning is a process which enables enterprises between academic to learn with, and from the group of business-community members through providing support and challenge. As a result it provide collective and improved understanding of the issues and shared commitment to deliver effective solutions.
C-Mine – the new outward looking Faculty
A significant part of UCLL’s development was a new Faculty closely linked to the Community and the region, which focuses on developing creative partnerships for mutual benefit for the college and the community. Built on an abandoned coal mine site of WInterslag, C-Mine, as it is known and shown above, is a renovation project in, and with, the city of Genk, UCLL, private partners and public organisations. It is an example of public funding and private investment. The public funds are made available by: City of Genk, LISOM, EFRD, Monuments and Landscapes, Tourism Flanders and the Provincial Authorities of the Province of Limburg. UCLL has built a new building to accommodate the Media and Design Academy. There is a cinema, theatre, artists workshops, restaurants, a design centre, etc. See: http://www.c- mine.be/nl/index.php, which will bring new life to the old mining quarter and which will become a major asset for the city of Genk; the college was also involved in the development of a second site, another brownfield area with a closed coal mine called THOR Park.
UCLL also had a strong identity and working capability for driving excellence, differentiating itself from other university colleges. PUMR also helped them develop even more powerful new learning programmes fit-for-purpose’ for their local city-regions.The UCLLteam have developed significantly themselves, and even writing a strong testimonial to PASCAL indicating what they see as the success of their comprehensive programme of enterprise support provided by PUMR.
The UCLL team started this development with PUMR with what they had and then explored policy making and developing action platforms through a number of international projects. This enabled them to develop new toolkits for change, with associated internal training to properly embed them, to facilitate better applications. They also made new combinations of partners with the VIA agency and other external partners within the specific eco system of their province and a bit beyond. UPBEAT and PUMR made them recognise the importance of all socio-technical and geo-political dimensions, or not, as the situation demanded. The questioning framework as developed would do this implicitly because each necessary step depends on the situation. For UCLL, the questioning was extended specifically to help them using the chart below:
| Factors | Questions | Influences |
| Political | Government ambition to tackle childhood obesity | An exercise machine for children might assist such a political drive; a new range of fast foods might not |
| Environmental | ||
| Social | ||
| Technological | ||
| Legal | ||
| Economic |
So, in the UCLL case, there was a strong political dimension, with the large Ford company closing it large plant in the region, and the Enablers worked closely in the region to get them on board with their developments. In particular their regional influence mainly came from their successful operations which could be transported elsewhere; this was because there was a strong scientific and systemic background to them. This was extremely important as it helped ‘sell the idea’; it was never based on pure gut instinct and, trial and error. As a result the systemic development and tools were seen as important by all and this was recognised by other institutions who picked them up consequently.
By 2015, the UCLL enterprise team had developed a large portfolio of successful projects, business partnerships and community/social enterprises. The whole development was paying for itself and the individual projects all made a great deal of wealth as well as being important to the local communities they served; this was also noted across the board. The following three are by way of example to just some of their success:
- The C-Mine Enterprise Development Faculty
One of the first things the UCLL team recognised was the importance of ‘place management’ and its relations with its region. It enhanced its Media, Art and Design (MAD) campus, with an outward focusing development having a specific and significant context where meaningful and unique collaborations could take place with regional partners; this enabled advanced leading edge solutions of high impact to develop through co-identification of worthy problems, co-creation of sensible solutions and co-production of sustainable outcomes for communities recently hit by large industrial problems. Now over 20 plus small companies are developing outreach there in a series of joint ventures in the new centre of art and creative industries, ranging from high-end products made in local workshops to international software companies. The photograph below is an image from one of its successful projects to date.
Enterprise at C-Mine
- Zuma – Developing Social and Community Capital
A UCLL Delivery Hub – The Community House in Hasselt
UCLL developed life-long-learning facility in the community, targeted at the needs of the people. It housed a drop-in centre where once a week – on Friday, market day – researchers and others caregivers from the Healthcare and Midwifery Department were present to answer any questions mothers may have had. The project, Known as Zuma, had:
- a Mum‟s Café, where information is given on how to eat properly and where dietary consultancy is given.
- Medical screening – such as blood pressure measurement – is possible.
- a cosy room for mothers who want to breastfeed their babies, and where specific information can be found on breastfeeding.
- a room for workshops and fitness exercises.
There is also cooperation with the care organisation – “Huis van het Kind” (House of the Child) giving total support for the development of infants, up to three years of age.
- Pop-up Outlets
A previous financial crisis created a number of side effects. One of the most apparent was that a lot of shops locally had disappeared, leaving empty shop windows in the streets. Of course there were also large shopping malls, but streets right in the centre of existing towns began to look really empty, if not derelict. In this context the UCLL team
recognised, both the need to help and the relevance and importance of life-long-learning in the community targeted to the needs of citizens. So they helped local people develop Pop-Up Outlets and Markets to help regenerate the area and to provide more gainful employment. Seven Shops were started by UCLL staff, working with local people, to re-invigorate the city quarters for a time This showed citizens what they could do themselves and what a renovated shopping street would could be like, attracting visitors and also, addressing potential entrepreneurs; this has become part of the standard teaching/learning tool inventory see UCLL’s web page https://www.ucll.be/samenwerken/innovatieve-projecteen/popups
The cooperation between the UCLL and the PUMR teams were both enjoyable and extremely strong. Both gained much insight and knowledge about leadership from each other and the added value of the university of applied sciences in the region. As well as the examples listed in the text above, several more interesting cases followed. Not only the number of cases was important. The collaboration gave me the UCLL leadership enablers much joy as their work had a significant impact on the well-being and prosperity of local society.
The PUMR/UPBEAT process, mentioned in some detail before and adopted by the UCLL team, was so valued by the local college team that it formed part of the identity it developed as part of the new merged institution and is now one of the five pillars of the new collective institution. It became part of the collective/institutional mindset. UCLL, as a result was seen as one of the forerunners in Flanders of advanced ways of higher learning and their ways were taken on by other institutions as a result. It therefore became part of regional embedding and overall cooperation. Because of the closure of the Ford plant a new regeneration plan was written, based on a very detailed needs analysis. In UCLL’s analysis of their situation they explored the eco-system of the province of Limburg and it was found that as a higher education institutions it must play a more important role in the future.
Thanks to the PUMR experience UCLL had, and continued to be ready, to co-define problems and opportunities, they were also ready for co-establishing cooperation platforms and to co-create a framework to build a new future for our region and province, and participate in realising concrete projects and developments.
Major Learning point for Citizen Enablement
This overall development shows how a team of citizen and learning aware academic leaders can use the best principles of ‘positive deviance’ to change the way a whole college so it can positively learn to help it’s regions citizens. The myriad of successful enterprises developed by local citizens stands testimony to the idea of Citizen Enablement.
The Citizen Enablers
Michael Joris and Ria Bollen were the main Citizen Enablers at UCLL who ensured the relevant learning processes were in place helping to empower local citizen and small businesses of their city region for their own personal development. Michael went on to help a University in Pretoria, South Africa, before he formally retired, Ria is now applying the knowledge and insights she learned at UCLL in her job at the Flemish Council of Universities of Applied Sciences. They have been commissioned by the Flemish government to develop and implement a policy on transfer offices in the thirteen Flemish universities of applied sciences and developed a vision and a strategy together to optimise our operations and to be able to collaborate effectively:
- to become a proactive, responsive and self-evident partner that stimulates innovation in the field of SMEs and social profit organisations;
- from this partnership to create an even stronger, more authentic learning environment for students to shape them into innovative and entrepreneurial professionals.
Truly these Citizen Enablers learned a great deal from their experiences and are passing on that knowledge to others.
