Dear Ljubomir,

I would like to make universities more knowledge efficient.

Dear Ljubomir,

I would like to make universities more knowledge efficient.

Believe me I agree with Dr Andras"I would like to make universities more knowledge". It is areal good and perfect statement efficient.

Dear Prof Ljubomir et al.,

The first university in my country gives an example of what it is to be lean and green. At that time, the nation was poor and under developed. The university bought up nearby houses that were used for quarters for its staff. It was good planning. The price of houses and buildings have been soaring. They made many such wise investment decisions. It's the most prestigious university, even until now, in terms of research and teaching.

Hm, probably such a university could dominated by beautiful women... I am joking!

Some suggestions:

1)Reduce bureaucracy, the less the papers the more the lean

2)Turn off the lights when nobody is inside the classroom: No it is not a joke, we have problem here at the university campus in Athens, the lights are on even when the university is closed!

3)Promote of mass transport media and not cars.

I agree completely with Abdalla. Meranda has mentioned a good example where the Lean and Green strategy worked just fine!

My colleague Peter Hines with his colleague Sarah Lethbridge have written fine paper on how to create a LEAN university!

I agree with Alkhatib and Rey, furthermore, government should be more involved with the community and education institutions.

I certainly hate wastefulness. And definitely green policies have been a pending issue at the Spanish Univesities for a long, long time. It is only very recently that we even have recycling containers for paper around. Plastic and glass still pending in some. Still a long way to go... Certainly a serious and sincere commitment from the public administrations is a must for the enforcement of green policies at university -and elsevwhere!

There have been some excesive expenditures in the past over here for matters that were of no strict academic interest or purpose, and that had to end. Having said that, I must say that our current budget at University is far too lean for crucial things and that is starting compromising quality!

Yes, universities can become lean and green and more efficient. What is required is whole hearted acceptance of advanced methodologies and changes. It will be worth all the cost paid.

Green university can be achieved through awareness and provide opportunities to national companies to share the university this aspect, for example in the Hashemite university where I work, we have a pilot case as a primary step for clean energy, solar energy plant that give light to the presidency building, and the other projects are coming. other form of greening university campus we have a contract with a national company for recycling of papers as such institution have a huge quantity of waste papers and cartoons, and so forth. I hope we reach the point when our students are capable of being involved in more actions when we have the culture of segregation and separation of waste in situ as the corresponding containers are distributed in the university campus as well as in the municipalities

@Demetris have mentioned in his answer to turn the lights of when there are nobody present! It reminded me that today is the Day of Earth Hour! Join the action!

http://www.earthhour.org/

What do You work in order that Your University become LEAN?

My discussion is related to becoming a green or carbon neutral City or University. In Australia, a number of Cities and Universities are targeting to become either carbon neutral (zero carbon footprint) or green.

Some of the steps that can be taken to reduce emissions of GHGs are: reducing in the consumption of fossil fuels, use of renewable energy that emit less or nil GHGs, recycling of wastes, planting trees to sequester carbon dioxide and buying enough carbon credits. Other measures are highlighted below including awareness and education would be vital to promote these concepts (carbon neutral or greening):

• encourage communities to use energy more efficiently (e.g. use of compact fluorescent lights, insulation of house, use of energy efficient appliances etc.),

• switch to renewable energy sources/green power (e.g. solar hot water, electric cars, hybrid cars, car pool),

• adapt to a lifestyle which is less reliant on energy (e.g. living close to work places so driving is unnecessary or use of public transport, or biking),

• conserve water and other resources ,

• use of environmentally friendly materials/design in building construction,

• purchase environmentally friendly goods and services,

• promote and serving local products, encouraging vegetarian

• use of recycled paper, promote e-documents (bills, letters, invoices, invitations), 2-sided print and copy, avoid using paper cups and plates when possible.

Examples of certified carbon neutral cities in Australia are Yarra City, City of Melbourne, Moreland City Council, and City of Sydney.

Examples of Australia's 10 greenest universities are Monash University, Australian National University, Macquarie University, University of Western Sydney, University of Adelaide, University of Melbourne, Charles Sturt University, and University of the Sunshine Coast, James Cook University and La Trobe University

Several countries that have pledged to become carbon neutral are Costa Rica, Iceland, Maldives, Norway, Tuvalu, Vatican City, British Columbia, and Bhutan

Lean and green actually goes hand in hand. It depends on the priorities of the university and the support it gets from the people of the region. A few points that should be considered are:

1. Have a good balance of people with a wide cross section and proper representation of women and minorities to provide a holistic view.

2. Bring awareness of lean and green to all employees and students and provide practical instances of their application.

3. Incorporate in the administration lean principles by decentralizing the administration and reducing bureaucracy.

4. Adopt lean and green in all curriculum modules so that by the time the students graduate, it will become the way for them.

5. Reward good lean and green practices by employees and students by wide publicity and incentive system.

Prof N, you have raised 5 fine and practical ideas. Thanks! At the end of 2013, our college put in effort to reduce expenses especially PAPER, electricity and water. So many things are trimmed!

Dear @Nageswara, yes, adoption of lean and green is MUST for University sustainability. Dear @Miranda, these 3 measures :paper, electricity and water will reduce expenses, no doubt Follow these measures and consequences, so fine analysis may appear in one year, do you agree?

Thanks all for fine answers.

Dear Prof, for several months, we saved costs by having meetings in govt buildings rather than expensive hotels.  But just recently, it seems that we are allowed to use hotels again.  So from tomorrow till Wednesday (8-10 Dec), I will attend a professional development seminar at Kinta Riverfront hotel in Perak.

http://www.kintariverfront.com.my/

I am a research Professor! You may kindly share this query with Prof. Mahfuz as he is the President of his University in Jordan. He may share his valuable administrative experience in answering your query.

Yes dear Ljubomir. Universities should be lean and green. Effiecient and effective university management should cut down expenses to a certain level without affecting the education process and eliminate waste while delivering quality education products.

Of course that It is possible throughout applying Lean principle in an organization. It is up to administration and management of university.

I the nowadays I'd care about quality of knowledge and teaching in Universities first of all...

http://www.york.ac.uk/admin/po/processreview/ABS%20Final%20Report%20final.pdf

https://www.hesa.ac.uk/dox/benchmarking_to_improve_efficiency_nov2010.pdf

Dear  Ljubomir,

The answer is simple!

I already proved in another question that knowledge = power = money

So all we have to do is to sell our knowledge!

I think that it is a challenging issue and difficult task; I would like to see more fund for graduate students in order to do research.

http://www.atem.org.au/uploads/publications/-The_Principles_of_The_Lean_Business_System.pdf

http://www.aimresearch.org/uploads/file/Publications/Executive%20Briefings%202/AIM_Lean_EB_FINAL.pdf

http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/spru/publications/reports/barriers/finalsection4.pdf

https://engineering.purdue.edu/ProEd/LeanSixSigma

http://www.tacoma.uw.edu/keybank-professional-development-center/lean-six-sigma-green-belt

http://www.villanovau.com/resources/six-sigma/lean-six-sigma-certification/#.VIR7VGcsfMQ

http://www.ou.edu/outreach/lean/

http://extension.fullerton.edu/ProfessionalDevelopment/Certificates/Green-Belt

Academic programmes formulated to cater to the needs of specific sectors of the industries may draw funding from the respective industry sectors. This approach  will lighten the financial burden on the academic institutions at the same time ensuring the placement of the graduates, thus trained, in the corresponding sectors. Beneficiary institutes will readily come forward to extend financial support towards infrastructure development as well as operating expenses involved in running such courses.

Sponsored research, in addition to providing the funds for undertaking research, ensures a guaranteed end user for the out come of the research. Otherwise, many of the academic researches (planned without an end user in sight) may often end up without getting adopted and may simply serve to facilitate the earning of various degrees to the respective researchers.

A typical university does not have bountiful monetary resources in most cases. While one of the duties of the administration is to diversify the activities in order to gain material resources, the staff have a responsibility for saving and ,of course, suggesting ideas for acquiring the needed money for a university's expanding functions. Areas that need to be addressed are: energy saving, less use of papers, and recycling of water & papers. The design of new buildings ought to take into consideration efficiency in energy usage & adequate sun lightening. The university ought not become a beggar waiting for charities & donations. The university can attain cash money by establishing small industrial plants which also serve the process of learning. It is inappropriate, for a respected university, to rely heavily on students' fees or to be "mean" with regard to the academic staff through cuts on their payments "for overtime work" or on their salaries.

Here are possible ideas, as a suggestion, dear Ljubomir: smart energy, water harvesting, paperless environment, on-line/e-learning/teaching, energy and water-oriented research, reduction of carbon oxide! 

Yes, we are trying right now to reduce the usage of papers and the use of e-government and encourage the projects of recycled waste and alternative energy research.

We are trying to make E-learning system more efficient in our University and now students are more or less used to submit their home works etc on e-portal.

The economic crisis makes it very difficult. One idea would be the interaction with industry. But you need to make a business or nothing funding.Another possibility could be to sensitize the political class. But the political class is sensitive only to the holders of the votes. Eliminate baronies and "so-called parentopoli", ie the passage of charges from father to son? But fighting the strong lobbies is like fighting windmills. Then, you can do as well as  your work with passion. Perhaps a new revolution like in 1968? Who knows ... Some of us will still have a dream. I hope.

Start with a serious, sincere, and decisive top management.

Make thes seriiousness, sincerity and decisiveness felt by the other members of the university- support staff, faculty members, students.

Convert them into policies and directives.

Implement, again, with seriousness, sincerity and decisiveness.

Generating reports that show details data could also be a good measure.

Universities should give equal importance to facilitate Applied research; which is the incubator for an enterprise.

There are many "sorts" of universities, some so called technical others dealing with fundamental sciences, others involved with social / human matters, etc. Of course you cannot address the subject in exactly the same manner for these different organizations.

Nevertheless, even if the objectives are different (e.g. relationships with companies are important for tech universities, high impact factor papers for fundamental sciences, etc.) I would think that at least two important aspects can be shared for all types: there should be some clear management focused on reaching the objectives whatever they are (as for any company / society, i.e. group of humans) and the clients, i.e. students, should play a role in evaluating the performance of the system (i.e. did they find what they expected, if not why).

This should as a consequence create leaner universities, better focused on their objectives and evaluated somehow by those, who in the end, are supposed to benefit of the service.

energy saving plus reducing bureaucracy

In addition to what you all have said, I will say what I have observed as one of the financial black-holes of universities and research institutes - the administration. Universities should focus on the very principle why they are established in the first place: teaching and research, seek knowledge and solve problems of society. Thus minimizing the administration in size, power and finance sharing and treating them as catalysts of the process.  

Universities today behave like companies in which administration puts itself as the kernel, soul and indispensable highest part of the school paying it self the most part of the pie of money (more than the total sum of money paid to all faculty members) like business CEO  and treating faculty members as essential appendages but less worthy and trivializing the icon of the system and fundamentally twisting the very essence of what a university is.

Besides, universities should focus more on the teaching learning process than pouring huge sums of money on fancy and colossal buildings and campus decorations in this time of money sucked by the few. 

Yes i agree with energy saving, bureaucracy and paper usage, and the use of recycling wastes

Dear @Fairouz, In our university most of paper usages (except written exams!) have been replaced by automation (paperless office) via our university's Intranet. Having said that, many of the bureaucratic tasks can be made much more efficient via university's Intranet.

For reducing energy consumption, we can install PV panels, SWH (solar water heating) and CHP (combined heat and power) systems to save energy, reduce costs and go green in near future!

Yes, universities can become lean!

Instead of budget discussions, or better: in preparation of budget discussions,

• take the department leaders to a manufacturing site. Give them a 1 hour crash course in lean manufacturing, make them familiar with the seven wastes, let them observe a selected manufacturing process, identify wastes and come up with possible improvements. 
• Having this done, you will find your department leaders proud of what they have achieved as manufacturing laymen and highly motivated to apply their recent insights to their own area of responsibility.
• Now is the time to bring them together in a workshop to identify the wastes in your university and an improvement program in a cross-departmental approach, followed up by individual sessions per department.

Congratulations to your green university dear @Mahmoud

Dear @Fairouz. We are not green! In the last sentence of my previous answer I said  we can install PV,....and go green.

Hope you could achieve it @Mahmoud

Give equal importance to advanced research and FRUGAL INNOVATIONS & ADAPTATIONS immediately required for people's acceptance.

Dear @Krishnan, I have raised a question about FRUGAL! Be my guest!

https://www.researchgate.net/post/Have_you_heard_of_CHEAP_Science_It_is_where_scientists_do_fine_work_on_a_very_small_budget_What_do_You_think_about_FRUGAL_engineering

Green Classroom Professional Certificate Program is MUST! Objectives of certification are:

"Support the health of school occupants, including teachers, students and staff

Provide the best physical environment possible for student academic performance

Decrease absenteeism due to environmental factors

Support environmentally responsible practices by saving energy, saving water and improving indoor environmental quality

Foster an appreciation among future generations for environmentally sustainable practices

Become part of the green schools and green building communities

Apply for elective continuing education credits to maintain a teaching credential"

http://centerforgreenschools.org/main-nav/k-12/how/classroom/Greenclassroom.aspx

@ Ljubomir 

I am sorry, the answer what I have given here is right.... I have meant that instead of thinking and working towards great innovations, be practical of offering what the world requires at the current juncture, needs to be also given equal priority

"Give equal importance to advanced research and FRUGAL INNOVATIONS & ADAPTATIONS immediately required for people's acceptance".

The "Dumbing Down Of The US Educational System-The Need For Lean Ed

"...the percentage of money spent in educational systems (all levels) have increased significantly and resulted in spending more money on education, with less of the increased spending going to directly improving teaching and student results...

The answer in Educational costs is not that we need to keep spending more and more money. We need to start by looking at the increase in Administrative and Professional costs over the past 40 some years, and begin to "eliminate the waste". If we do not eliminate the "overhead waste" in educational costs, just throwing more money will not result in improved educational system results. In fact, results will stay stagnate or even decline."

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dumbing-down-us-educational-system-the-need-lean-ed-daniel-stoelb?trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A577811291454672492575%2CVSRPtargetId%3A5956884239214534656%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary&trk=vsrp_influencer_content_res_name

Apply SMART method at your University for checking validity of the objectives, wich should be SMART(ER):

• Specific

• Measurable

• Achievable

• Realistic, and

• Time-related

• Evaluate

• Re-evaluate