ABSTRACT

The size, scale and nature of the failure sets TVU apart from other HEIs, but it is not, of course, the only institution to have experienced difficulty in managing change. Indeed, instances where change has faltered in universities are as commonplace, if not more so, than those where change has been successful. The University of Cambridge’s ‘botched attempt’ to introduce a new computerised accounting system (Capsa), for example, is yet another illustration of this tendency. Not only that but, as with TVU, it also stands as a salutary warning to other institutions of the inherent dangers in managing change and of the dire consequences it can wreak when things go awry. In this instance, an independent inquiry found that Cambridge’s implementation of the new Capsa system in 2000-1 had proved to be an ‘unmitigated disaster’ characterised by moments of ‘high farce’, ‘hard to credit naivete’ and ‘fallacious’ financial reports. So much so, indeed, that it not only ‘wasted £10 million of public money’ but it had also, in the way that the new system hampered and delayed access to research grants, invoices, salaries and expenses, ‘almost brought the University to its knees’ in the process (Baty, 2001; Owen, 2001).