What do deans and pro-deans do?

“It’s great fun being a dean,” says Erik Lindberg, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Professor at the Department of History. “Both the actual tasks and working with the heads of department and the pro-deans in the faculty are fun, as is the cooperation with the vice-rectors and the other deans within the disciplinary domain. There is a constructive atmosphere, and you can get support when you have to make difficult decisions.”

Many balancing acts

In addition to a dean, who is formally the chair of the faculty board, all faculties also have one or more pro-deans. Together they share the work. While there may be differences in the details between the faculties within the disciplinary domain, a rather common solution is that a pro-dean is responsible for education matters.

“It’s fun, interesting and fills you with enthusiasm,” says Annika Waern, Pro-Dean at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Professor at the Department of Informatics and Media. “Of course, issues can get quite heated, but I haven’t seen much of that so far. The role involves taking a stand on many discretionary matters where it can be difficult to strike a balance. But that is also exactly what makes the role so interesting. It’s key to the role that you are the boss for certain things, but not as an employed manager – you have this role as an assignment while remaining rooted in academic operations.”

More difficult to be a head of department

In a collegial organisation, it may be difficult to find enough people who are interested to fill all posts whether you are appointing a head of department, a director of studies, a dean or a vice-rector. In light of this, it can be interesting to reflect on the role of dean.

“There is a myth that it’s difficult,” says Erik Lindberg. “But I don’t think that’s true. The head of department has to operate within difficult parameters, but as a dean you deal with issues that are both bigger and clearer.”

“It is of course a disadvantage to get a person in the role who is not familiar with it, and it takes at least a year to learn. But it’s also a strength to have worked on the same issues but from different angles. You work with the same things but in a wider context and you can see possibilities.”

The dean has support from the Office for Humanities and Social Sciences at the University Administration. The Office has staff who can help bridge between terms of office and can provide quick answers and deal with cases.

“As a dean, I have more support than a head of department. Without the Office, the role of dean would be far more difficult,” says Erik Lindberg.

Big-picture perspective

Erik Lindberg concludes that thanks to this suppport, as dean, he doesn’t need to lie awake sleepless at night about how much there is to be done.

“But it’s a huge responsibility, of course. You have to have the courage to drive a change process and make decisions. All while you're working to communicate and garner support for your decisions. It’s also important to have the courage to drive change early in your term of office,” says Erik Lindberg.

Annika Waern adds that as dean, you need to liberate yourself from the department perspective.

“We all have that gut reaction: how is this going to affect my department? This reaction is totally okay of course, but in this role, you have to have more of a big-picture perspective,” Annika Waern reflects.

Many meetings

As a dean, there are rather a lot of meetings to attend. Erik Lindberg paints a picture of preparations prior to the faculty board meeting, Thursday meetings with the vice-rectors and the other deans within the disciplinary domain, the Advisory Board for Campus Gotland, education councils, the steering committee for the Campus Gotland inquiry, buildings and facilities planning, heads of department meetings, the disciplinary domain board meetings.

“When I started as dean, I was surprised at how closely we deans and vice-rectors work with each other in the disciplinary domain. A lot of things are discussed and dealt with at the disciplinary domain level,” says Erik Lindberg.

Manager of the heads of department

Erik Lindberg notes that it would be difficult to write a job description for the dean’s role. As a dean, you are involved in a great many different questions at different levels.

The dean is the manager of the heads of department and needs to support and help the heads of department, who are rather alone and often get dragged into various types of conflicts.

An important question for the faculty board and thus for the dean is the faculty’s strategies in relation to the University’s goals and strategies.

“It’s a challenge to translate a goal into concrete measures and gain acceptance of these decisions,” says Erik Lindberg. “To get the departments to pull in the same direction requires that they respect you. What can the faculty board decide on, what do the departments decide on? What degree of autonomy is there for the different parts of the organisation?”

Vital to respect the departments

Annika Waern is on the same track from the perspective of the very topical work of evaluating courses and study programmes and reiterates that the roles of dean and pro-dean are a lot about striking the right balance when making decisions.

“It takes a lot of work to get things to function but at the same time you can’t be handing out bags of goodies,” says Annika Waern. When there are problems, the departments want to be guided from above and they also want more resources. But very often these are problems that the faculty cannot remedy either. Often what’s needed is an understanding of the conditions under which we all operate, and that it’s about the responsibility that each department must shoulder.”

However, it’s a difficult process, often with a shrinking budget in the face of rising quality demands.

“You have to have great respect for how the departments choose to deal with problems,” says Annika Waern. “One example is the evaluations of courses and study programmes. Many proposals for measures might be received during the process, so it’s important that all these proposals do not commit the departments. But at the same time there is also a kind of requirement that certain things must be resolved, there must be rigour in the system.”

As a pro-dean, Annika Waern has spent a lot of time on the process around the evaluation of courses and study programmes.

“We need to talk to the members of staff and understand how the faculty can facilitate and support them so that the departments get the most out of these evaluations,” says Annika Waern.

Collegiality worth preserving

Erik Lindberg notes that he is proud that his co-workers trust him and have chosen him for dean.

“It feels very good to have gained their confidence and trust. Collegiality is a principle worth safeguarding. The disadvantage is that it can take a long time to make difficult decisions, but it is easier then to implement them.”