Change and Innovation We Expect of ICT Teaching Staff

Many governments are emphasizing the need to improve ICT skills, research and innovations, often making special reference to the role of higher education. At the 2003 conference of NACCQ, several authors reported on change and innovation in ICT teaching. Change in Higher Education in general continues, as was evident from some of the papers presented at the 2003 HERDSA conference in New Zealand. This paper explores the ITP sector (Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics) in New Zealand and selected literature on the management of change and innovation in higher education in order to formulate recommendations for managing change, innovation and improvement in the environments with high resource constraint that most ICT departments find themselves in. We first review the public exhibition of research in the ITP sector for indications of change and innovation. Then we consider job descriptions of staff at highly unionised ITP’s in New Zealand as a worst-case scenario, again looking for emphasis on change and innovation. And finally do we use specific literature on the management of change and innovation in the ITP sector in order to formulate and explore initiatives that HOD’s and ICT staff should be undertaking while working in the current environment of high resource constraints.