Developing Skills: A Reflective Essay on University Administration

This reflective essay explores the skills and experiences of a university administrator, focusing on the application of Driscoll's model to understand professional development. The essay examines the role of an administrator in managing student activities, public relations, and campus programs, emphasizing the importance of effective communication. The author discusses challenges faced, particularly in encouraging academic success and managing a diverse team. The essay highlights the development of leadership and communication skills to foster collaboration and resolve conflicts. Through self-reflection, the author identifies areas for improvement and emphasizes the importance of continuous learning in becoming an effective university administrator, referencing Babatunde and El-Gohary (2018), Golaghaie et al. (2019), and Tawafak et al. (2018).

Preparing for Success at
University

This reflective essay is going to examine the understanding and skills, that I have
developed by working as an administrator in University. To explore experience and number of
areas which help me in developing the necessary skills, Driscoll's model is used. Afterwards, how
working with other professionals has supported me in improving performance also demonstrated.
Application of Driscoll's model -
Purpose
The main role of an administrator in university is to manage the student activities, get a
quick response on providing details about degree programs to students and their peer ones,
manage public relation initiatives and more (Babatunde and El-Gohary, 2018). Hereby, I have
worked as a Dean of Students, where main role is to coordinate with academic and non-academic
campus programs. It includes student services like provide counselling, residential, housing and
other programs. To perform all these duties, I have analysed that a person needs to give priority
for development of an effective communication first. This would help in getting effective
support of other professionals who are associated with same field, for performing such
responsibilities.
Event/ Scenario
As I have such an ability of effective communication, that enables me to better supervise
the campus programs, as well as serve a liaison between other administrators and student council.
But issues that I have faced during this job is primarily with encouragement of academic success
and monitor the progress of students that are struggling in classes. This would impact highly on
my performance, while handling such non-academic issues. Along with this, having a team that
consists professionals and other staff of different background with experience and knowledge
gap, also creates issues for me in performing the assigned duties of administration.
So what (my feelings about experience)
I have learned that to handle problems related with encouragement of students for
academic issues and provide counselling to them to share problems, that arise learning issues for
them, communication should be effective. Therefore, to handle these problems, I have firstly
worked on maintaining good relations with students, to earn their loyalty. For this purpose, I have
focused more on developing effective team of other professionals, so that cooperation of them
can help in performing such responsibilities. Hereby, it has been analysed by me that if people
are treated with respect and dignity then it will help in maintaining good relationship with them.
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What have learnt
So, this concept me enable me to understand how to bring collaboration among team-
members for performing academic and non-academic activities (Golaghaie and et. al., 2019).
Furthermore, problems related with conflicts among team-members due to experience or
knowledge gap and different background, I have worked more on my leadership skills. This
would help in managing sharing and collaborative skills under team-members to work more
precisely.
Reaction on such event
After understanding the importance of good communication in maintenance of effective
relationship with team-members, I have started working on the same. To make any decisions
regarding with improvement of academic progress for struggling students at university, I have
taken opinion of each member, that provides feeling of equality under them. This process also
help me in earning support of team to perform well. But to gain more efforts of them and
complete every responsibility on time, I need to work on management skills also. This would can
only be possible if I spend more time on observing how senior administrators handle discipline-
related process and procedures. It will enable me to perform better in future and enhance my
skills within administration.
Involvement of others:
There are various situations occurred where I faced issues in performing the major
responsibilities. It includes diverse opinions of team-members for measuring the progress of
students in academic performance and handling discipline-related procedures. Along with this,
due to different background of team-members, I have also faced issues regarding with developing
collaboration among them. So, it has arise conflicts among them and impacted directly on
performance of each also. It has recognised me to work more on leadership skills, to influence
other members for providing better contribution in completing such responsibilities (Tawafak and
et. al., 2018). Therefore, I have adopted different leadership styles like democratic, autocratic and
more, as per situations, to gain support of team-members. This would help in developing an
effective team, where each member give support to each other for performing their part of role.
Along with this, having an effective communication skills, also enables me in managing conflicts
and maintaining good relationship with other professionals.
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Thus, through utilisation of Driscoll's model reflection, I have recognised my entire
performance and experience that enables to identify areas, where more practice is necessary to
become an effective administrator in university.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Babatunde, S. and El-Gohary, H., 2018. Necessity of Mentoring in Entrepreneurship Education:
Reflection by Practitioners. Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education
and Practice. 145(1). p.02518007.
Golaghaie, F. and et. al., 2019. Integrating case-based learning with collective reflection:
outcomes of inter-professional continuing education. Reflective Practice. 20(1). pp.42-
55.
Tawafak, R. M. and et. al., 2018. Technology enhancement learning reflection on improving
Students’ Satisfaction in Omani Universities. Advanced Science Letters. 24(10).
pp.7751-7757.
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