Your session will introduce a new partnership between the Association of Heads of University Administration (AHUA) and SUMS Consulting, commissioned by the UUK taskforce on transformation and efficiency. The big news will come at the conference, but what can you tell us now about this exciting development for the HE sector?
We know that in July 2025, Universities UK (UUK) published ‘Transformation & Efficiency: Towards a new era of Collaboration’. Among its recommendations was a call for AHUA to lead work on this Maturity Assessment model; a model that would enable institutions to ‘adopt a common approach to assessing efficiency and benchmarking costs.’
The partnership between AHUA and SUMS Consulting is an incredibly timely and important development for the sector. Universities are under pressure to deliver more with fewer resources, while also transforming their operations to remain competitive and sustainable.
SUMS brings a unique and proven track record having been at the forefront of transformation and efficiency for many years. We support institutions to design new operating models, optimise processes, harness digital, and build the cultures and capabilities that make change stick. Our benchmarking, insights and tools are already widely used by members, and this new partnership will scale up that expertise and make it available in new and practical ways.
What makes this exciting is that it is sector-led expertise, grounded in evidence, and tailored to the realities of higher education. AHUA’s leadership community, combined with SUMS’ practical experience of delivering efficiency and transformation, gives universities a powerful new resource at a time when it is most needed.
You’ll be covering Organisational Efficiency Maturity, why is this such a key issue for HE now?
The pace of change is quickening across the sector all the time and universities face considerable financial pressures. Perhaps more importantly, they face real pressure to evolve models, provide better services more focused on student need, and to adapt the academic offer to make higher education attractive and value for money to as many people as possible.
Our work with AHUA to develop this maturity model will empower the sector to ‘hold a mirror up to themselves’ in terms of their maturity; identifying areas of strength and weakness and to facilitate collaboration between institutions facing similar challenges and opportunities. It does not provide a definitive solution (and never will), but does, in our view help to understand where we are as a sector, and how we could improve further.
Who will benefit the most from attending your session, and why?
The people who will benefit most from this session are senior university leaders and those charged with shaping their institution’s strategy, driving operational change, and ensuring resources are aligned to priorities. That includes COOs, registrars, directors of finance, HR, IT, estates, and transformation leads.
The new Organisational Efficiency Maturity Assessment (OEMA) will provide both a strategic lens and a practical tool. This gives leaders a consistent way to:
- identify their institution’s maturity in transformation and efficiency
- understand where the biggest gaps and opportunities lie
- draw on sector-wide insights and best practice distilled by SUMS, the recognised experts in operating model design and efficiency in HE
- translate abstract discussions about “efficiency” into practical pathways, actions, and indicators that are directly relevant to their context.
This means attendees won’t just hear about change in principle, but they’ll leave with a clear sense of where their institution stands, what good looks like, and what steps they can take next.
Ultimately, the session will be most valuable for those who need to make transformation real in their institutions, and who are looking for an evidence-based, sector-specific framework to guide their decisions.
Stay tuned for more information
The AHUA Autumn Conference promises to be an opportunity to shape a positive vision for institutions and the HE wider sector, strengthening individual and collective resilience in a dynamic environment. Stay tuned for live updates and look out for more information on the pioneering Maturity Assessment model.
