What is it?

It is a simple way to represent what the university does in terms of its capabilities. These models are not new and have been used extensively in many industries over the last 25 years. What is new is a free-to-use UK HE version that was launched in April 2018.

The model groups capabilities into five areas; strategy, teaching and learning, research, commercial activities and supporting services. These categorisations of how a university works were the result of over a years work undertaken by five universities and two consultancies. The Leigh Partnership were selected as one of those consultancies.

What can I do with it?

There are a number of standard scenarios; to map the current state of part or – more ambitiously – the whole university, to plot out which capabilities new ideas and initiatives would need and the links between them, or to impact assess large projects such as Student Record systems or Contact Management solutions.

Having the model pre-built saves a huge amount of time. However the starting point is to customise it for your own institution. This is merely selecting which capabilities you want to work with, and ascertain if the model matches your organisational structure.

Then different analysis methods can be deployed depending on the scenario(s) chosen. These all are a combination of people, process, data and technology filtered by outcome and audience.

Who else is using it?

Since launch, there are at least 30 universities who have been in contact with UCISA to discuss the model. We are aware of projects analysing the impact of large university wide systems, analysing the impact of new initiatives around recruitment, and considering how well the university is aligned to its new corporate strategy. We have worked on five projects across a range of universities and see a continuing demand as the model reaches a higher level of maturity.

How much does it cost?

The model is free to use. It is doubtful any university could have justified the development cost to build such a rich implementation of a capability map. The costs to develop it for individual institutions varies by project. Therefore our approach is to understand the outcome, before offering any proposal. The smallest piece of work has been three days for a smaller institution, with the largest being over sixty and still rising for a far more ambitious programme.

Where do I find out more?

The UCISA web page with more detail:  https://www.ucisa.ac.uk/representation/activities/cap_model/what_is

Please get in touch using our contact details below. We can also provide a number of anonymised projects on request.