Awards

Quality & Productivity Awards

Promoting Excellence and Innovation in Higher Education Administration for more than 20 years

A.  INTRODUCTION

The Canadian Association of University Business Officers (CAUBO) promotes the professional and effective delivery of services and administration of resources in all facets of higher education. This annual awards program is designed to recognize, reward and share achievements of administrators in the introduction of new services, improvement in the quality of services provided, and the management of human, financial, and physical resources. Initiatives from across universities and colleges, including academic initiatives, are welcome and will be considered on the grounds of increased quality, productivity and effectiveness. Increased quality of instruction alone will not be considered, since it is beyond the scope of the CAUBO mandate, and other venues exist for its recognition.

B.  AWARDS

There are two award categories - National and Regional. Three National cash awards are given annually for the best three submissions nationally. No institution may receive more than one National award per year.

In addition to the National awards, four Regional awards will be given for the best submission in each region (Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario and Western Canada) which does not win a National award. Submissions receiving a National award are not eligible for a Regional award, however an institution may win both a National and a Regional award for different submissions.

The Selection Committee reserves the right not to give an award if not warranted in its judgment.

Awards winners are announced in May and prizes and plaques are presented by the sponsors at the Annual CAUBO Conference in June.

Initiatives may be resubmitted by an institution provided they contain additional qualitative and quantitative results.

C.  CRITERIA

Five categories, each with its own weight, are used to evaluate submissions for the Quality and Productivity Awards, leading to a maximum score of 100 points. The scoring factors and point values for each category are as follows:

1.  10%      Transferability - the potential for use of the technique at other institutions as assessed by the institution or demonstrated by presentations to other institutions or at a regional or national level.

2.  25%      Innovation - the unique nature of the project or idea in the context of higher education. Although the idea may have been the subject of earlier submissions, institutions are encouraged to submit projects which may be similar but where the institution believes that there has been a meaningful change in approach, technology, or implementation in which peers might be interested.

3.  20%      Quality impact - the extent to which the project has contributed to an improvement in quality of service, of the environment, or of working conditions as measured or as perceived by the staff, client/end user, community or others.

4.  20%      Productivity impact -  the extent to which the project has contributed to improvements in productivity as measured against baseline data (ex: dollars saved relative to previous costs; number of transactions eliminated relative to baseline numbers, additional revenues relative to base revenues, etc).

5.  25%      Transformative Value - the extent to which the project contributed to a transformation of a service or institution (ex: cultural shift; impact on strategic directions, empowerment of employees, positioning of the institution, etc.).

   100%

Clarity of presentation is an essential element in the assessment of the portability criterion and a major consideration in the scoring in the other categories. Clear documentation of how the project is being implemented and, where applicable, clear evidence of the outcomes that reflect at least 12 months of measurable results are also required.

D.  SELECTION COMMITTEE

The Selection Committee is composed of Patricia Hibbitts (Chair), VP Simon Fraser University, Gary Bradshaw, VP University of Prince Edward Island, Gary Brewer, VP York University, François Roy, VP McGill University and Carole Workman, Executive Director, CAUBO together with representatives from each of the sponsoring organizations.

E.  PUBLICATION

One of the main objectives of the program is to encourage the transfer of knowledge and the dissemination of information. The applications are published annually by CAUBO on its web site for consultation by members. In addition abstracts of the winning projects, together with the title and contact persons for all submissions, are published annually by CAUBO in a booklet, which is widely distributed, and made available on the CAUBO web site.