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 at least as commonplace as those where change has been successful. The University of Cambridge’s ‘botched attempt’ to introduce a new computerized accounting system, for example, is yet another illustration of this tendency. Not only that but, as with TVU, it stands as a salutary warning to other institutions of the inherent dangers in managing change and of the dire consequences that can result 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’ characterized by moments of ‘high farce’, ‘hard to credit naiveté’ and ‘fallacious’ financial reports. So much so, indeed, that it not only ‘wasted £10 million of public money’ but 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; Shattock, 2006).
