The E in NREN – Weeknote #299 – 22nd November 2024

Fleet Street in London
Fleet Street in London

For the first time in an age I headed up to London for a meeting. I also did London in a day, which was a lot more exhausting than I remember it being. It was very cold, and though there was light snow on the way, I didn’t see the snow and disruption that others encountered.

The principal reason for heading to London was for an in-person discussion and workshop on planning some work around, what we are calling the Education in NREN. NREN stands for National Research and Education Network, in the UK that is Jisc, in the Netherlands it is SURF, whilst in Eire it is HEAnet. These are the national networks for educational providers. Though there are many similarities there are also marked differences between the various NRENs across Europe (and the rest of the world).

It was nice to work in the London office for a change. It’s never our busiest office, and that was even the case prior to the pandemic, but you do see and meet people there.

I had planned to head to the Bristol office on Wednesday, but when I tried to book a meeting room for my two online meetings, there were none available. Over the last year the Bristol office has got much busier, so meeting rooms get booked up very quickly. Part of this, is that not only do we still have a pattern of hybrid working, which means a lot more online meetings. The fact we are hybrid has also meant that are patterns of recruitment are less dependent geographically, which exacerbates the number of online meetings and calls that people are having. All this means that the number of calls in the office is higher than it was before the pandemic and there is increased demand on rooms for people to have online meetings in.

As well as the in-person meeting on the E in NREN, I had a fair number of meetings across the week, as I start to do more work in this area.

I am still continuing to work on the optimisation of operations and data following the publication fo the KPMG report I had been working on. I had a meeting about some collaboration with another agency on some next steps on some collaboration proposals.

In addition I wrote up some thoughts on next steps with KPMG report.

Across the sector there has been discussion about talk about the OfS report from last week. For example from WonkHE.

Last week’s update from the Office for Students (OfS) on the state of institutional finances for the HE sector in England brought any lingering sense of cheer from the recent announcement on the indexation of undergraduate fees to an abrupt halt. Based on the latest data available on student entry this autumn, OfS confirms that its warning in May that the sector’s recruitment forecasts had a degree of “optimism bias” has proved true.

It now appears the question of what will happen if a higher education institution fails, is less about if and more about when. The OfS requires all providers to have in place a student protection plan, to ensure a continuity of studying for students of a failing institution. The objective of these plans is to protect the students, however not the staff or the institution as a whole.

I do think that over the next year or so, we will see struggling universities merging and collaborating more closely, rather than waiting to fail. Though the independence mentality of the institution may mean that rather than merge, an institution will just keep cutting costs.

We live in interesting times.

We choose to go to the Moon – Weeknote #298 – 15th November 2024

lunar landing
Image by WikiImages from Pixabay

After being on leave for most of last week, though I worked for most of the week, I also took a few days leave.

I was in the office on Tuesday and during my lunchtime walk I went pass our old offices at Castle Park. The block has been surrounded by scaffolding for what seemed like a really long time. They have renamed the building BLOK. What I found quite interesting was the addition of a café on the ground floor. I can imagine if we had remained in that building that myself and others would have probably drank a lot of coffee there.

It is looking like that the university cash crisis to get worse despite tuition fee rise. This week the OfS published a report on the financial sustainability of the higher education sector. Despite earlier positive perspective of an improved outlook, the new report notes

Our analysis of recruitment trends suggested that providers’ financial forecasts were based on predictions of student recruitment that were too optimistic.

The OfS notes that bold and transformative action is needed to address financial sustainability of the sector.

Many providers will need to take increasingly bold action to address the impact of these challenges on their financial position in the short, medium and long terms. Where necessary, providers will need to prepare for, and deliver in practice, the transformation needed to address the challenges they face. In some cases, this is likely to include looking externally for solutions to secure their financial future, including working with other organisations to reduce costs or identifying potential merger partners or other structural changes. We recognise that cultural and other barriers in the sector may deter institutions from considering some of these options, and so it is important that options are identified and evaluated with sufficient time for action to be taken.

The action required by the sector is one of the core reasons why Jisc with KPMG published a report on collaboration.

Even with the rise in tuition fees, the increase in employer national insurance will negate much of that benefit. We also know that the impact on the sector varies, some institutions will be able to weather the storm better than others. As the OfS says bold action is needed. This is a time to think differently.

The news  story was also reported on the BBC

Almost three quarters of universities in England will face financial problems next year – despite tuition fees increasing, the BBC has been told.

David Kernohan on WonkHE has written an in-depth piece on the report which makes for interesting reading.

At the end of the week I was reminded of this speech by John F Kennedy.

We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.

I was involved in a webinar with senior managers from across higher education discussing the report we have just published with KPMG.

One participant remarked that collaboration and shared services in some entrenched areas of higher education was hard and that we may, as a sector, might want to focus on areas which are new or easier.

I do think that, just because it is hard, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t look at some areas. There are very likely benefits that go beyond that area as well.

Collaboration – Weeknote #297 – 8th November 2024

The main event this week was the publication of the report I have been working on over the last few months.

Commissioned by Jisc and produced in partnership with KPMG in the UK, Collaboration for a sustainable future outlines how institutions can leverage digital, data and technology collaboratively to unlock efficiencies, reduce costs and contribute to a stable, sustainable future.

The report reflects on the possibilities of collaboration and sharing across higher education, as well as highlighting current exemplars and importantly the challenges.

The report is the start of a journey and hopefully will catalyse discussion and debate within higher education.

walking home
Image by 춘성 강 from Pixabay

I was mainly on leave this week as I was moving house. One reason for taking leave was that I wasn’t sure how long it would take to sort out connectivity in the house. In the end, the internet was one of the first things that was working fine. I had sorted the provider out the week before, given them my moving date as the activation date. They sent the router to my old address, so when I moved it was literally a simple process to plug the router into the power and then connect it to the modem.

Lacking innovation – Weeknote #296 – 1st November 2024

I took some leave this week, so less intensive (from a work perspective) than more recent weeks.

We had the budget this week, and it wasn’t the budget for higher education. No sign of that fee increase everyone has been hoping for, nor was there any new funding. Of course the increase in employer’s National Insurance contributions had meant that wage costs across the sector have gone up. The Universities and Colleges Employers Association has calculated that this measure will add around £372m to the sector’s pay bill.

We have been planning the launch of the collaboration report that we finalised the draft of last week. There have been a few issues this week, so we have been delayed by a few days. Nothing serious, but it is important that we cover all the details and make sure everything is signed off. I also did some internal briefing documents for internal stakeholders.

Had a meeting about the education in NREN. Across the world there are various NRENs. These are the national research and education network (NREN) and each is a specialised internet service provider dedicated to supporting the needs of the research and education in each country. The Netherlands have SURF, and in the UK, we have Jisc. There have been discussions across various networks about raising the importance of the E in NREN. How can NRENs better support education. I do think in the UK, Jisc provides a lot of support for education across further and higher education. Could we do more, and what is happening in Europe? Lots to think about and find out.

I had a conversation with Lawrie about the lack of innovation in learning technology in higher education, now before you say artificial intelligence, let’s just put that to one side and focus on other aspects of innovation. The mailing lists are quiet, I am not seeing the blog posts or yore, and as for new technologies, is there anything out there which is truly innovative? Back in the day, well twenty years ago now… we were on the cusp of an innovation revolution. In 2004, there was no Twitter, no Facebook, no YouTube. The iPhone wasn’t going to be seen for another three years, while it would be six before we saw the iPad. Yes in 2004 we had smartphones and tablets, but it would be the way in which Apple designed their versions which revolutionised how consumers (and then students) would use them. Over a ten year period we saw massive changes in consumer technologies, connectivity, web services, which all impacted on learning and teaching.

Since then, not so much.

Another thing we discussed was how the financial constraints on higher education could be impacting on the role of learning technologists within higher education. There is an invalid assumption that because of covid, we all know how to do it now. Combine that with the lack of flashy innovation, then the visibility of the hard work of learning technologists might be lacking. When your work moves away from discovery into embedding, then the profile of what you do becomes less visible. Big flash events about how a single cohort are using a new technology is exciting, whereas embedding use of the VLE across the entire university has a greater impact but isn’t as high profile. Sometimes talking about what you are doing and the impact it is having on the student experience is just as important as actually doing it.

Choosing another way – Weeknote #295 – 25th October 2024

Took some leave this week to do some domestic stuff, as one does.

Spent the rest of the week finalising the collaboration report I have been working on over the last couple of months.

Group working
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

A report from the Edge Foundation makes for interesting reading, it said that degree apprenticeships are attracting students with high levels of attainment.

I have mentioned in a number of conversations about the attraction of degree apprenticeships and the impact that this could have on general HE recruitment.

The research found that outreach and recruitment for DAs was generally not integrated, although both institutions in the study highlighted increasing interest in DAs from schools with a greater proportion of higher-attaining students and non-state schools, rather than the schools where their outreach typically takes place. Both providers had recruited a range of apprentices, with older apprentices already working for the organisation from comparatively lower socio-economic backgrounds being the norm on health-related programmes, while digital and STEM-related programmes attract younger apprentices as new recruits, from comparatively higher socio-economic backgrounds.

Read more about the report on Wonkhe:

Are degree apprenticeships opening up access, or entrenching privilege? Charlynne Pullen, one of the report’s authors, sets out what the research found.

A coming decline in the number of 18-year-olds makes the future ‘very bleak’ for some universities. A new report from the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) shows reductions in student demand in England, which are already affecting the higher education sector, will cause serious problems as the number of 18-year-olds in the population declines after 2030.

In an already financially constrained sector, the demographic changes will be making life more difficult.

“In Dublin’s fair city…” – Weeknote #293 – 11th October 2024

When I die, Dublin will be written in my heart, said James Joyce and I understand where he is coming from, when I visited Dublin this week for the HEAnet Group Advisory Forum. It was quite a flying visit, arriving late Tuesday evening, and leaving Wednesday afternoon, but I did manage a quick walk around the heart of the city before heading back to the airport.

I was in Dublin for the HEAnet Group Advisory Forum where I provide an international perspective for the group based on the work, I do at Jisc. HEAnet is the Irish NREN, whereas Jisc is the UK NREN. In many ways we are similar, and in many ways, we are very different. A lot of the things that Jisc do, are done in Ireland by EduCampus, who work very closely with HEAnet.

Of course the size of the countries is very different, the Republic of Ireland has a population of just over five million, whereas the UK is just under seventy million.  Despite the differences in size of student population, and number of universities, there are plenty of similarities in the challenges and issues that both organisations face. It would not surprise you that cybersecurity is up there at the top, as is analytics, and increasing demand for bandwidth.

As I was in Dublin, this did mean, that for the second year running I missed our all-staff Jisc conference in Birmingham.

I continued to work on the shared services report. I also did some researching and planning for an internal blog post for next week on the report.

Next week I am presenting on the smart campus at the Education Summit in London. I only have a fifteen minute slot, so spent time condensing a presentation I would normally use and thinking about what and how I would talk about the topic.

Blueprint – Weeknote #292 – 4th October 2024

blueprint
Image by GrumpyBeere from Pixabay

This week saw UUK publishing their blueprint for higher education.

Opportunity, growth and partnership – A blueprint for change from the UK’s universities

We stand at a fork in the road in the history of the UK’s universities. There is now a clear choice. We can allow our distinguished, globally competitive higher education system to slide into decline. Or we can act together, as institutions and with government, to ensure that higher education is able to deliver for the nation into the 2030s.

It is 143 pages long, so for the recommendations, head to page 128.

I did participate in the process of contributing to the report, in the main chapter six.

In relation to my work, there are two recommendations worth noting.

  • removing VAT on higher education shared services
  • introducing a transformation fund to enable and accelerate changes to universities’ operating and business models in order to achieve greater efficiency

It is a frustration for many higher education institutions that if they decide to outsource or collaborate on a shared service, then the institution has to pay VAT on the costs of that. Whereas if they decide to undertake the service in-house they obviously do not need to pay VAT. So even if there are savings to be had from shared services or collaboration, the reality is that any such savings are wiped out by the additional VAT costs.

I recently wrote about the need for universities to change.

So universities may know and realise that they need to change, but they can’t afford to make those changes now. As a result they may never change.

So, it was welcome to read in the UUK report about introducing a transformation fund to enable and accelerate changes to universities’ operating and business models in order to achieve greater efficiency.

blueprints
Image by Reto Scheiwiller from Pixabay

I have been reviewing and commenting on the draft of a report I have been working on.

Undertook some organising and planning for HEAnet Group Advisory Forum which is happening next week.

I also had a preparatory meeting for Education Summit presentation and conference, where I am presenting on the Intelligent Campus.

Happy Retirement Paul – Weeknote #291 – 27th September 2024

Still can’t quite believe that it is October next week, did we have a summer, or was that somewhere else?

At the start of the week I had an online meeting with Oaklands College, about their smart campus aspirations. It was a good meeting, and we discussed various topics and aspects of what we mean by smart campus, use cases, and what foundations are needed.

Attended another active learning set session as part of an internal leadership training, I am undertaking. The problem we were discussing was about recruitment. I won’t go into details here, but I was reminded of the challenges involved in recruitment and getting it right. Over my career I have recruited some amazing people, and occasionally, not so much. One thing I will pass on from my experience is, no matter how desperate you are to fill a position, if the candidates you interview are not right, don’t feel forced to appoint. It may feel you have solved a short term issue, but the reality is that it may become a long term problem. Also, think about the type of attributes and skills you need for that position and then think about how you will find that in the people who apply. For example, does putting in having a degree as an essential attribute provide the skills you need, or will it exclude people who have those skills gained through experience, but never went to university, as it wasn’t something that was available to them?

Attending training for our new travel booking system. Not too different to the system we already have. Having this kind of self-service system makes life so much easier to the processes and systems I used in the past. I remember having to fill out paper forms, get them authorised, and then pass them to the travel team, who would then book the travel and accommodation.

I attended the Education Espresso session organised by Wonkhe and Adobe. It was an interesting discussion.

I had quite a few meetings this week.

Planned out the conferences I want to attend, I won’t be able to attend them all, but at least I have thought through the ones I would like to go to.

This week Paul Bailey retired; I have worked with Paul for twenty odd years. I joined Jisc in June 2015 and have regularly worked with Paul on various projects and programmes. I would also bring him for conversations about my work. Before I joined Jisc I collaborated and worked with Paul on various things, some I don’t remember, but certainly in the early days of learning analytics. I also am sure he was a critical friend of some case studies I did back in the 2000s. He was a real asset to Jisc and he will be missed.

It’ll be reyt – Weeknote #290 – 20th September 2024

This week I was in Leeds. As we as a directorate away day (over two) days I also took the opportunity to visit various universities around the area.

I have written before about the declining student recruitment across UK higher education. This week we saw that the UCAS (28 day) acceptances were up slightly from last year. In total, there have been 498,340 acceptances, which has risen from 493,940 last year but is lower than the peak of 515,650 in 2020.

However it is not all good news, the overall number of acceptances has been driven by UK 18-year-olds but there has been a decline in mature and international students getting onto an undergraduate university or college course.

Wonkhe reported that the sector has lost another higher education provider. No it’s not a traditional provider, but it’s the second one within the last four weeks.

The Advanced Business Academy (ABA), an Office for Students approved provider of franchise and partnership provision with campuses in London and Luton, has ceased higher education operations with immediate effect. The provider’s website now provides guidance for current students, including contact details for academic partners (the University of Buckingham and Leeds Trinity University), noting that both ABA campuses are now closed.

We were up in Leeds for our Directorate Away Day, which takes place lunchtime to lunchtime due to the geographical distribution of the team. I did a presentation about the report I am working on.

Did some visits and field research (physicality) to the University of Leeds, Leeds Beckett University and the University of York in regard to Optimising Operations and Intelligent Campus. I have been to Leeds University quite a few times for conferences and events, but it was good to see the physical campus from a different perspective.

As I was in the area, I also walked around the University of York, I wanted to see how the campus felt with more people there, as the last time I had been to visit it has been the summer break. It didn’t feel crowded, which was interesting. I actually studied at York as an undergraduate, and over the last four decades the campus has expanded hugely, however the main campus around the lake (duck pond) hasn’t changed very much at all. There are some new buildings in and around the brutalist concrete buildings of the 1960s. It was quite a large campus when I was there in the late 1980s, but with the expansion into East Heslington the campus is so much expansive. This has implications for travelling across campus for study or for internal meetings. From an intelligent campus viewpoint, trying to utilise space more efficiently will be restricted by the physical distances between buildings and spaces. Should just note that I did visit Leeds University in the 1980s when I was at York for concerts in the Student Union.

The visit to Leeds Beckett University was my first visit to the campus, and I am glad I went. I don’t know I had in my head that Leeds Beckett was comprised of modern buildings, but the campus is focussed around a number of Edwardian brick buildings. There are a number of newer buildings as well. Both the University of Leeds and Leeds Beckett both have additional city centre campuses in the heart of Leeds, which raises the question of collaboration and sharing.

Leeds is quite a distance away from Weston-super-Mare, so spent quite a bit of time travelling.

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