Partnerships in educational networks in community organisations

Abstract

The paper explores an attempt by a small team of staff within the School of Management at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) to transform the only postgraduate third sector management program offered in Australia, in response to powerful external pressures tor change. After analysing the nature of these contextual imperatives for the transformation of the program, the paper outlines the rationale underpinning the new program and the' intrapreneurial' process that accompanied its implementation. Thereafter the results of an evaluation of the transformed program, conducted after the first phase of strategic action, are presented, with specific attention given to an analysis of the politics of its implementation and the nature of the learning gained by the stakeholders of the program. The paper concludes with an attempt to relate the consequences of this initial phase of strategic action, within the new program, to social capital theory.