Breaking down silos: why permeable boundaries drive innovation in HE

This blog explores one of the key themes emerging from our recent report, ‘Highlighting Innovation in Our Sector. The full report examines innovation across four thematic areas through interviews with 14 sector professionals. For specific case studies and comprehensive analysis, you can download the full report here.

Higher education has long been defined by hierarchies, boundaries and siloed working. This isn’t a criticism, it’s a just an observation of a circumstance arising from the organic nature of growth evidenced by most universities. Academic departments operate within disciplinary silos, professional services function separately from academic staff, and students are positioned as recipients rather than partners in institutional development. These traditional structures, born from decades of organisational evolution, once served important purposes: creating clear lines of accountability, establishing expertise domains, and managing institutional complexity.

Yet in today's rapidly changing higher education landscape, these same boundaries are increasingly becoming barriers to innovation and effective problem-solving. The most successful institutional transformations now emerge not from within these silos, but at their intersections—where different perspectives, expertise, and experiences converge to create solutions that no single department or function could develop alone.

The cost of compartmentalisation

Traditional organisational silos in universities create several challenges that inhibit innovation. When academic staff operate independently from professional services, opportunities for mutual learning and support are lost. Students experience fragmented services that require multiple interactions to resolve single issues. Technical specialists may develop solutions that don't align with pedagogical needs, while academic innovations may fail to consider operational constraints.

Perhaps most significantly, compartmentalisation limits institutional agility. When challenges arise that span multiple areas—as most complex problems do—siloed structures struggle to coordinate effective responses. The result is often duplicated effort, conflicting priorities, and solutions that address symptoms rather than root causes.

The COVID-19 pandemic starkly illustrated both the costs of siloed thinking and the potential of collaborative approaches. Universities that quickly pivoted to effective remote learning did so by breaking down barriers between IT services, academic departments, student support, and facilities teams. Those that struggled often did so because existing boundaries prevented the rapid, coordinated action the crisis demanded.

In the grey – where innovation flourishes

Innovation thrives in the grey spaces between traditional categories. When academic staff collaborate directly with technical specialists, they create educational experiences that are both pedagogically sound and technically sophisticated. When students become partners in service design rather than passive recipients, solutions emerge that address real rather than assumed needs. When professional services teams work across departmental boundaries, they develop integrated approaches that transform the user experience.

The most compelling innovations occur when diverse perspectives are genuinely integrated rather than simply consulted. This requires moving beyond token representation to create environments where different voices can meaningfully influence outcomes. It means designing processes that harness the creative tension between different professional cultures rather than minimising it.

Cross-functional teams consistently demonstrate superior problem-solving capabilities because they combine complementary expertise and challenge assumptions that single-discipline teams might take for granted. A librarian's understanding of student research behaviour, combined with an IT specialist's technical capabilities and an academic's pedagogical expertise, creates possibilities that none could envision independently.

The leadership imperative

Creating permeable boundaries requires intentional leadership that actively works to dissolve traditional hierarchies while maintaining necessary coordination and accountability. This isn't about eliminating structure altogether, but making structures more fluid and responsive to the challenges at hand.

Effective leaders in this context span boundaries themselves, moving fluidly between different institutional areas and translating between different professional languages and priorities. They create forums for cross-functional interaction, establish shared metrics that encourage collaboration rather than competition, and model the collaborative behaviours they want to see throughout the organisation.

Crucially, this type of leadership distributes rather than concentrates authority. Instead of making decisions from the top and cascading them down through departmental hierarchies, collaborative leaders create frameworks within which diverse teams can make decisions collectively. This approach not only produces better solutions but also builds the institutional capacity for continued innovation.

Practical strategies for smashing silos

Creating more permeable boundaries requires both structural changes and cultural shifts. Structurally, universities can establish cross-functional project teams, matrix reporting, create shared physical and virtual spaces, and develop communication systems that facilitate rather than fragment interaction.

Culturally, the shift requires recognising and valuing different types of expertise. Technical knowledge, lived experience, professional expertise, and academic understanding all contribute essential perspectives to complex challenges. Creating cultures where these different ways of knowing are equally valued enables truly collaborative approaches.

Professional development also plays a crucial role. When staff have opportunities to understand other areas of the university, they're better equipped to collaborate effectively across boundaries. Job rotation, cross-training, and collaborative learning opportunities can help build the mutual understanding that effective collaboration requires.

Student partnership as boundary breaking

Perhaps the most transformative boundary to dissolve is that between staff and students. Traditional models position students as consumers of education, but innovative approaches recognise them as partners in its creation and delivery. When students contribute to curriculum design, service improvement, and institutional governance, they bring perspectives that staff—however well-intentioned—simply cannot access.

Student partnership represents the ultimate form of boundary breaking because it challenges the fundamental power dynamics that underpin traditional university structures. This doesn't mean abandoning professional expertise or academic standards, but instead creating space for student voices to meaningfully influence and contribute to institutional decisions.

The most successful student partnership initiatives create genuine co-creation opportunities where students and staff work together as equals to address shared challenges. These partnerships consistently produce innovations that neither group would have developed independently, while also building stronger relationships and deeper institutional commitment.

Building sustainable change

Breaking down silos isn't a one-time intervention but an ongoing cultural transformation that requires sustained commitment and continuous reinforcement. The tendency toward compartmentalisation is strong, driven by professional identities, resource pressures, and the natural human inclination to work within familiar groups.

Sustainable change requires embedding collaborative approaches in institutional systems and processes. This means revising job descriptions to include collaborative expectations, developing performance measures that reward cross-functional working, and creating advancement pathways that value boundary-spanning skills.

Most importantly, it requires celebrating and sharing stories of successful collaboration. When cross-functional innovations are recognised and rewarded, they create positive examples that inspire others to work beyond traditional boundaries.

The way forward

The future of higher education lies not in eliminating organisational structure, but in making it more permeable, responsive, and human-centred. Universities that successfully navigate current challenges will be those that harness the collective intelligence of their entire community—academic and professional staff, students and external partners, technical specialists and creative thinkers.

In a sector facing unprecedented challenges, our collective success depends on our ability to work together across all the boundaries that have traditionally divided us. The innovations we need won't come from isolated successes, but from collaborative development that draws on every corner of our institutional communities.

If you’re interested in having a conversation with us about any of the themes outlined in this blog, get in touch to discuss how we can support you.