A personal history: 25. Why I was fired at UBC and a case study of university mismanagement

I am writing an autobiography, mainly for my family, but it does cover some key moments in the development of open and online learning. I thought I would share these as there seems to be a growing interest in the history of educational technology.

Note that these posts are NOT meant to be deeply researched historical accounts, but how I saw and encountered developments in my personal life. If you were around at the time of these developments and would like to offer comments or a different view, please use the comment box at the end of each post. (There is already a conversation track on my LinkedIn site and on X). A full list of the posts to date will be found toward the end of this post.

The end of the road at UBC

I have been putting off writing this post now for over three months, because it was one of the most painful periods in my professional life. Also, after all these years I am still not sure what really happened, so this is my personal view. Others, such as Mark Bullen, probably have a better picture. If so please comment at the bottom of this post.

Distance Education and Technology at UBC in 2003

There were approximately 5,000 students in online distance credit programs (part of regular degrees) in 2002-2003 taking courses through DE&T, most taking one or two online courses at a time (it was still impossible to do a full UBC undergraduate degree at a distance), plus three fully online masters programs either already launched or in production.

By 2003, distance enrolments through DE&T had grown at a steady 12 per cent per annum over the previous seven years.

The revenues for DET in 2003 were roughly $5 million, of which

• 60% were student tuition fees to cover tutoring and distance student services,
• about 20% in direct grant from UBC’s general operating funds that mainly covered course development costs
• 4% in research grants
• 2% for the Director’s office (from Continuing Studies)
• 14% for university overheads

Almost all the distance education courses had been moved online, and fully online, cost-recoverable masters programs had been launched in educational technology, creative writing and rehabilitation sciences.

The Distance Education and Technology Department had also set up a research group, MAPLE (Managing and Planning Learning Environments), which had brought in over $1 million in research grants over three years.

I had also been the chair of a university-wide committee, Advancing the Creative Use of Learning Technology (ACCULT), which put forward a number of recommendations to strengthen the use of learning technologies throughout UBC, and I worked with UBC Media Services to develop a video on how teaching with technology at UBC might look in five years time (i.e. 2005). The report and video went to UBC’s Senate and were approved.

Above all, DE&T had a tremendous team of professionals (instructional designers, web designers, students service managers) dedicated to the design, development and delivery of high quality online distance courses and programs.

From feedback received through conference invitations, UBC was recognised both nationally and internationally for its innovation and quality in online learning and distance education.

What could possibly go wrong?

Chaos and confusion

Well, in 2003, UBC’s senior administration (the Committee of Deans) decided that Distance Education and Technology as a unit was to be largely dismantled, all distance education courses for credit were to be returned to and run by the relevant faculties, and my services were deemed no longer needed. This followed an external review of Distance Education and Technology, whose recommendations were largely ignored by a subsequent sub-committee of Deans, who recommended the dismantling of the unit.

This resulted in almost three years of chaos for distance education students as Faculties tried, mostly unsuccessfully, to take responsibility for their distance education courses. In the end, the decision was reversed, and the remaining staff in Distance Education and Technology were moved to the Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth (TAG).

Forced into retirement

I should have realised something was up when in a meeting with Jane Hutton, Neil Guppy and someone from HR in late 2002, it was pointed out that I would be due for retirement in 2004, as UBC had mandatory retirement at age 65 (this would later be abolished in 2009), and they wanted to know what my plans were. It was made clear that my contract with Continuing Studies would not be renewed after 2003. I wasn’t happy about this. Although I had had a scare about cancer in 2001, the operation was completely successful, and by 2003 I was well and fit again. However, it looked like I didn’t have a choice because of the mandatory retirement policy. I was in the administrative staff category, I did not have tenure, and was absolutely dependent on the funding of my position from Continuing Studies.

I was increasingly doing consultancy contracts with other universities and organisations, but the fees went to into the DE&T accounts. At the meeting, I asked if I decided to retire at the end of 2003, would there be objections to my taking the consultancy contracts with me. I was told that this would be fine, so I agreed early in 2003 to resign on 1^st January, 2004. As I had a considerable amount of sabbatical leave owing, I would step down as Director of DE&T in July 2003, and Mark Bullen would be appointed acting director.

University politics

I was never sure exactly what went on behind the scenes, or at least all the reasons behind the decision to dismantle DE&T, but primarily it was about money (unofficially), and secondly about the future vision for learning technologies at UBC going forward (officially).

In terms of money, the Deans saw all the undergraduate tuition revenue from ‘their’ courses going to Continuing Studies (where Distance Education and Technology was located), and about $1 million of general operating revenues going as an annual grant to DE&T. What the Deans didn’t really understand was that it was money in and money out; in other words all the tuition revenues received were paid out to hire tutors, and most of the grant money was paid to faculty and instructional designers for course development and the rest to supporting distance students. There was no balance going as profit to Continuing Studies, and even my salary was paid by Continuing Studies, not from DE&T’s revenues nor from the university’s general operating grant.

In terms of future strategies, after the ACCULT report had been approved by Senate, there was considerable discussion across the university, and particularly amongst the Deans, about the best way to organise and support the development of learning technologies. As well as DE&T, a number of different teaching support units at UBC, such as the Centre for Teaching and Academic Growth (TAG), the Office of Learning Technologies (OLT), Telestudios, and IT Services, had sprung up or expanded, with some reporting to the VP Academic/Provost and others to the VP Administration. At the same time, some of the Faculties had hired their own instructional design or educational technology support staff, and a couple ran their own distance education programs. Generally, the Deans were unhappy about these central units, as they took money from the general operating fund which they felt should be going to their Faculties, and that teaching was best managed within the Faculty.

A review of DE&T had been mutually agreed with the VP Academic’s Office as necessary back in 2001, mainly as a result of the ACCULT recommendations. My own view and that of my colleagues in DE&T was that:

• distance education required an integrated system for the design, development and delivery of online programs, and therefore DE&T should remain a single, integrated unit;
• however, a strong, professional Centre for Educational Technology should be established and DE&T, which was focused on credit and online programming, should be part of a new Centre.

The majority of Deans, on the other hand, wanted a decentralised system, with ed tech and DE support within each faculty.

DE&T objected from the beginning at the decision to review DE&T in isolation. To move the proposals in ACCULT forward, DE&T argued that the roles and relationships of all the different central teaching support units at UBC should be reviewed together, including DE&T. This suggestion though was ignored by the senior administration.

A high quality external review panel, including Terry Anderson from Athabasca University and Joel Hartmann from the University of Central Florida, received input from DE&T, including a vision and strategic plan.

On receiving the external panel’s report, Barry McBride, the Provost, reported:

The Review team had tremendous praise for the unit, for the staff expertise and commitment, and for the leadership of Dr. Tony Bates.  They commented, for example, on the “high level of expertise” contained within this “internationally recognized unit.”  There can be no doubt that under Tony’s leadership the unit has been very successful…. Over the next months we will be looking for new organizational alignments and an effective financial model that links the strengths of DE&T more closely with the Faculties and e-learning support units that many have developed.  DE&T will now report to Neil Guppy, Associate Vice President, Academic Programs.(1)

Following this, Neil Guppy set up a very small Committee of Deans, with himself as chair, two Deans (Arts and Technology), and Mark Bullen (I was on sabbatical leave). However, despite Mark’s strong objections, the two deans on this committee basically planned to eviscerate the design, development and delivery functions of DE&T by:

• moving all course development and delivery funds to the faculties,
• moving all research activities to the Faculty of Education,
• with DE&T left solely with marketing and central information sharing. (2)

This proposal was agreed by the Council of Deans at the end of December, 2003.

This resulted in over a year of chaos in terms of distance education. The Faculties quickly  realised that there was no ‘spare’ money and they would need to either hire new staff or existing staff from DE&T. Some of the smaller Faculties simply did not have the resources after re-allocation from DE&T to manage distance education as well as on-campus teaching. DE&T had benefited from the economies of scale of a central unit. Several key DE&T staff left UBC for more secure jobs during this attempted transition. I had retired by this stage and Mark Bullen was left with the terrible job of trying to keep services going when few in the Faculties knew what they were doing.

As a result, in March, 2005, nearly three years after the decision to review DE&T, a new AVP, Academic Programs announced the decision has been made not to proceed with the dissolution of DET (3). Remaining DE&T staff were moved to the Office of Learning Technologies, which later merged with TAG to become the Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, thus ensuring the integration of online learning with other digital technologies at UBC.

To some extent UBC now uses the ‘mixed’ model that Bruce King developed at the University of South Australia, with some learning technology staff assigned long-term or permanently to a Faculty, but with strong liaison with the central unit as needed. This was the model that DE&T originally proposed to the External Review committee. This model seems to have been working well since 2005.

Why did the Dean’s strategy go so wrong?

A number of factors resulted in the attempted dismantling of DE&T.

There was a clear anomaly in that almost all the work of DE&T was focused on students taking regular degrees for credit, but the unit was located in Continuing Studies, whose focus was on non-credit programs.

Walter Uegama, the AVP Continuing Studies, and a strong supporter of DE&T, had to step down in 2000 for health reasons and was replaced by Jane Hutton. She had supported a number of separate initiatives to establish online non-credit programs in Continuing Studies, and probably believed that the $1 million that went to my salary might be better spent on non-credit online learning, although she never said as much to me.

Also, in 1998, Barry McBride replaced Dan Birch as Provost and VP Academic. Dan had been a strong supporter. In 1999, McBride appointed Neil Guppy, a sociologist, as AVP, Academic Programs, with responsibility mainly for the teaching at UBC, and was the main liaison with me in the Provost’s Office.

Another factor perhaps was that during 2003 I wasn’t at UBC for long periods. I had accumulated sabbatical leave and was away a lot of the time working it off before I retired at the end of the year. However, I doubt I could have done a better job than Mark Bullen, who had to face two very intransigent and self-serving deans with little support from outside DE&T.

I moved on in 2004 to a highly successful 20 year career as a private consultant (more on that to come).

Lessons learned

1. I never regretted my time at UBC; it was probably the most intense, constructive and satisfying part of my career.
2. Some deans are like robber barons in the court of King John; they pursue their Faculty’s interests above that of the university as a whole.
3. It is much easier to destroy than to build.
4. 85 is the new 65, as far is retirement is concerned (if you are fortunate enough to have good health and a passion for your work).
5. Everyone needs mentors and champions with power and influence. I lost mine and made the mistake of not quickly finding new ones at UBC.
6. As the late soccer manager Tommy Docherty said: ‘When one door closes, there’s always another to slam shut in your face.’
7. There is nothing more satisfying as a manager than to have a dedicated, innovative, professional team working for you, but you will be incredibly fortunate if you have one.
8. There are few employers more devious than a university.

Lastly, thanks to all the wonderful staff who worked in DE&T, and to all the innovative faculty at UBC I had the fortune to work with. I still miss you all, 20 years later.

Make a comment

If you were around at this time, and have anything to add, please use the comment box at the end of this post.

References

1. McBride, B. (2003) Distance Education and Technology (DE&T), Internal memorandum to Administrative Heads of Unit, July 17
2. Isaacson, M. (2003) Re: DE&T Committee Internal memorandum to N.Guppy, December 15
3. Kindler, A. (2005) DET dissolution cancelled Internal memorandum to M.Bullen, Director of DE&T

Next up

Working at the Open University of Catalonia

Previous posts in this series

Here is a list of the posts to date in this series:

A personal history: 5. India and educational satellite TV

A personal history: 6. Satellite TV in Europe and lessons from the 1980s

A personal history: 7. Distance education in Canada in 1982

A personal history: 8. The start of the digital revolution

A personal history: 9. The Northern Ireland Troubles and bun hurling at Lakehead University

A personal history: 10. Why I emigrated to Canada

A personal history: 11. The creation of the OLA

A personal history: 12. My first two years at the Open Learning Agency

A personal history: 13. OLA and international distance education, 1990-1993

A personal history: 14. Strategic planning, nuclear weapons and the OLA

A personal history: 15. How technology changed distance education in the mid 1990s

A personal history: 16. NAFTA, video-conferencing and getting lost in Texas

A personal history: 17. Innovation in distance education at UBC

A personal history: 18. Developing the first online programs at UBC – and in Mexico

A personal history: 19. Some reflections on research into the costs and benefits of online learning

A personal history: 20. Identifying best practices for ed tech faculty development

A personal history: 21. Open and distance learning in Japan and South Korea

A personal history: 22. Innovating in distance education at the Open University of Portugal in the 2000s

A personal history: 23. Open and distance learning in Australia and New Zealand – and 9/11

A personal history: 24. A ritual in borrowed clothes