Lean Higher Education (LHE) refers to the adaptation of lean thinking to higher education, typically with the goal of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of operations. Lean, originally developed at the Toyota Motor Corporation, is a management philosophy that emphasizes "respect for people" and "continuous improvement" as core tenets. Lean encourages employees at all organizational levels to re-imagine services from a customer's point of view, removing process steps that do not add value and emphasizing steps that add the most value. While the concept of "customers" and "products" is controversial in higher education settings, there are certainly diverse stakeholders who are interested in the success of colleges and universities, the most common of which are students, faculty, administrators, potential employers and various levels of government.
Lean in higher education has been applied both to administrative and academic services. Balzer[1] (2010) described such initiatives within university settings, including the critical factors for success and ways to measure progress. He noted that LHE can be effective to respond to higher education's heightened expectations, reducing expenses in an era of rising costs, meeting demands of public accountability, and leveraging institutional resources to fulfill the educational, scholarship, and outreach missions of higher education. A comprehensive literature review examining Lean's impact on higher education has been published.[2] The authors reported that Lean has a significant and measurable impact when used to improve academic and administrative operations. Such improvements are effective at the department/unit level or throughout an entire institution. However, the authors noted that implementing Lean is a serious undertaking that is most impactful if it involves long-term, strategic planning.
Though the application of Lean management in higher education is more prevalent in administrative processes (e.g., admissions, registration, HR, and procurement) it also has been applied to academic processes (e.g., course design and teaching,[3] improving degree programs,[4] student feedback,[5] and handling of assignments) in an increasing number of cases.
Pioneering academic institutions who have implemented Lean include: Cardiff University (Wales), Edinburgh Napier University (Scotland), Michigan Technological University (USA), Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (USA), University of Aberdeen (Scotland), University of Central Oklahoma (USA), University of St. Andrews (Scotland), Winona State University (USA) and others. A group of universities in the U.K. formed the LeanHEHub in 2012/2013. In 2016 the network was restructured due to growth, and is now known as Lean HE - the Lean in Higher Education Network. The Lean HE network has three continental divisions (Lean HE Americas, Lean HE Europe and Lean HE AsiaPacific). In Scotland, the Scottish Higher Education Improvement Network (SHEIN) is a collaborative network of HE professionals working within the area of continuous improvement. SHEIN exists to encourage the sharing of resources and best practice, online and face-to-face. In 2020 SHEIN became Lean HE Scotland, a sub-group of Lean HE Europe.
^[1] Lean Higher Education: Increasing the Value and Performance of University Processes
^Balzer, W.K., Francis, D., Krehbiel, T. & Shea, N. (2016). A review and perspective on Lean in higher education. Quality Assurance in Education. 24(4). http://hdl.handle.net/2374.MIA/5995
^M.L. "Bob" Emiliani (2004) "Improving Business School Courses by Applying Lean Principles and Practices,"
^M.L. "Bob" Emiliani (2005) "Using Kaizen to Improve Graduate Business School Degree Programs,"
LeanHigherEducation (LHE) refers to the adaptation of lean thinking to highereducation, typically with the goal of improving the efficiency and effectiveness...
customization, and using higher precision equipment than necessary. Business process Design for Six Sigma DMAIC Industrial Engineering Lean IT Lean manufacturing...
government LeanHigherEducationLean IT Ker, Jun-Ing; Wang, Yichuan; Hajli, M. Nick; Song, Jiahe; Ker, Cappi W. (2014). "Deploying lean in healthcare:...
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Lean thinking is a management framework made up of a philosophy, practices and principles which aim to help practitioners improve efficiency and the quality...
McLean, S. (2007). "About us: Expressing the purpose of university continuing education in Canada". Canadian Journal of University Continuing Education...
Lean finely textured beef (also known as Pink slime or LFTB, finely textured beef, or boneless lean beef trimmings or BLBT) is a meat by-product used...
industrial societies, including the expansion of higher, further, adult, and continuing education. Education is seen as a fundamentally optimistic human endeavour...
of Education, HigherEducation and Skills, their advisors and delegations from across the world to address key issues and to share the education system...
Journal of Economic Education, 30(winter), 33-42. Lean, J., Moizer, M., Towler, C. A. (2006). Active Learning in HigherEducation, Journal of Simulation...
Pugh; Astrid MacLean; Peter Cope (February 2007). "Validating a Steiner-Waldorf teacher education programme". Teaching in HigherEducation. 12 (1): 135–139...
Nancy K. MacLean is an American historian. She is the William H. Chafe Professor of History and Public Policy at Duke University. MacLean's research focuses...
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Warwick. Before going into journalism, Foster worked in politics and highereducation. Foster held staff writer positions at Inside Housing, The Guardian...
office of the state commissioner of highereducation. Emails and correspondence indicate that Bullock and McLean had a fraught relationship during the...
and higher intelligence is required to successfully navigate the novel problems. These results demonstrate that even with a higher level of education, intelligence...
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efficient than the either lean or agile manufacturing processes alone. The significance of the hybridized lean aspect is higher upstream the supply chain...
Education. 76 (3): 373–390. ISSN 0022-2984. JSTOR 40034579. "In Memoriam: Mable Parker McLean (1922-2012)". The Journal of Blacks in HigherEducation...
the full success they need to have education beyond high school. Their research shows that the higher the education level the greater the success. The...
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