Case Study · Higher Education
Crisis Management Programme for a Leading University.
A comprehensive crisis management programme designed to strengthen resilience, leadership capability and coordination across a complex university environment.
- Client
- Leading UK University
- Sector
- Higher Education
- Engagement
- Multi-year crisis programme
- Standard
- Aligned to ISO 22361 & ISO 22301
01 — The Challenge
A complex campus, many moving parts.
Universities operate as small cities — with students, staff, research, estates, halls of residence and international operations all exposed to disruption. Leadership needed a single crisis management programme that could coordinate across faculties, professional services and the executive team.
Key aims
- 01Establish a single, coherent crisis management framework across the university
- 02Clarify decision authority between operational, tactical and strategic tiers
- 03Build leadership capability through structured training and exercising
- 04Align welfare, communications and academic continuity into one response
02 — Our Solution
One framework, rehearsed at every tier.
Oakwood partnered with the university over multiple phases — reviewing existing plans, redesigning the framework, delivering role-based training and facilitating exercises at operational, tactical and strategic levels. The programme was built for a devolved environment where response depends on coordinated action across many functions.
Reviewed and consolidated existing crisis and continuity documentation
Designed a tiered crisis management framework aligned to ISO 22361
Delivered role-specific training for operational, tactical and strategic teams
Facilitated a linked exercise programme escalating across all three tiers
Embedded lessons learned into revised plans and a rolling exercise calendar
Universities can't rely on a single crisis team. Resilience comes from many teams rehearsing the same framework, so the whole institution moves together.
Programme principle
03 — The Results
A whole institution that moves together.
The university now operates under a single, tested crisis framework, with leadership at every tier confident in their role, authority and communication routes.
A single, tested crisis framework across the institution
Clear decision authority between operational, tactical and strategic tiers
Measurably stronger leadership capability under pressure
A rolling exercise calendar embedded into governance
04 — Key Insights
What we learned.
- 01Devolved organisations need shared frameworks, not shared committees
- 02Training must be role-specific to change real behaviour
- 03Linked, tiered exercises expose gaps that single-team drills miss
- 04Governance is what keeps capability alive after the programme ends
Next step
Pressure-test your own
crisis response.
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