Funding
The day started with an interesting talk from Steve Chapman (Vice Principal for Planning, Resources and Research Policy at Edinburgh University) about the HE funding situation in the UK and Scotland in particular. Looking at income Steve felt that the funding flowing out of the RAE will be challenging for Russell Group universities. On the expenditure side of the equation, salaries (+9%), pensions (at least +2% and likely to be more in coming years) and utilities (depending when your "fix" expires) are the key issues.
Steve suggested that the fall in the value of Sterling was double-edged: it costs us more to import goods and services, but the UK is becoming "cheaper" for international students.
The sector is encouraged to produce operating surpluses (average in England is 2%; Scotland 1%), but if TRAC were applied to our accounts then we're all likely to be making operating deficits (some in the order of 4%). This is not sustainable.
Steve asked "how could IT help" in the current climate:
- Improved efficiency of academic processes through IT (but this will only come if the academics use it!)
- Best practice in of IT
- Business change through the application of IT
- E-infrastructure
But it was agreed that IT shouldn't lead business process change. There was some discussion about shared services and Steve gave some good examples of the "pooling" of facilities in Scotland although there was some concern about how geo-political issues hinder such initiatives elsewhere in the UK, in particular England.
Finally, Steve encouraged us to be honest and blunt when providing the facts to our institutional management and be ready to provide an answer to the question "what should we stop doing?"
Russell Group
Mike Conway gave us an overview of the strategic/policy issues that are currently the focus of the wider Russell Group:
- Engagement with the NHS and others;
- Finance including pay and possibly industrial action in the sector;
- The REF
Influencing
Steve Williams led a session on how we as IT directors influence people within our organisations exploring:
- Demonstrating Benefits
- Executive/governance models
- Who/where are the leaders of change/influencers
- Good examples (from elsewhere)
- CIO Participation in the running of the institution
It was interesting to hear about the governance models used within other institutions: few appear to have the CIO on the Board and some have recently removed such representation. Is IT just seen as a service or an enabler of transformational change?
Google at TCD
Murphy from Trinity College Dublin gave an interesting presentation about their experiences of outsourcing student email to Google. TCD were a very early adopter in this approach and have had a number of challenges, no more than you would expect from being "first". Food for thought for any institution considering such outsourcing. It is becoming increasingly difficult to meet students' storage expectations.
SHED
Ray Tier provided an update on the Shared Data Centre for Higher Education (SHED) project, in particular the initial findings of the consultants engaged to reivew the requirements and produce an outline business case. I'm a member of the advisory group for this project and I'm keen to see the outputs given they will influence my institutions thinking about data centres.
JANET(UK)
Finally Tim Marshall gave an update from JANET(UK). Tim welcomed the invitation from the group to attend RUGIT meetings. He discussed the current thinking about the backbone replacement, although in the challenging funding climate this may include extending the existing contract. High-quality video conferencing is going to be a focus, hopefully reducing the requirement for travel related to meetings.
It was interesting to hear about some non-service work relating to customer perception and staff development. Tim is looking at a balanced scorecard for the company based upon: Customer perception; Internal process; Development & growth and Financial health (VFM). JANET(UK) have also spent time looking at management development for the leadership team and team managers. This is something of great interest given my participation in the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education Future Leaders Programme and the team management development programmes we have been running in ISS over the past two years.
Final Thoughts
Probably the most interesting (but alarming) finding from the Away Day was the likely impact of the economic downturn on institutions. Many institutions have already instituted recruitment freezes for non-academic staff and are planning for IS functions to reduce budgets by 5% in FY 2009-10.
