All posts by James Clay

news

Let’s get ready to rumble…

3 Comments
University of Greenwich
© User:Colin / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0

Today we heard about the creation of the “first” super university, arising from the planned merger between the University of Greenwich and the University of Kent.

BBC reporting UK’s first ‘super-university’ to be created as two merge from 2026

The UK’s first “super-university”, stretching across an entire region, is to be created through the merger of the universities of Kent and Greenwich, the BBC has learned. Under the proposed name of London and South East University Group, the single institution will have one vice-chancellor from the academic year starting in autumn 2026.

The WonkHE perspective on the merger news.

The plan on the student-facing side is for each university’s identity to be preserved – with applications, and degree awards, kept separate – behind the scenes, the “super-university” (as the press release puts it) will have a unified governing body, academic board, and executive team, and a single vice chancellor: Greenwich’s Jane Harrington. Staff at both universities are expected to transfer across to the newly merged university – legally, there will be one entity, but the two “brands” will still exist as trading arms.

Degrees from the new super university will still be awarded in the name of Kent or Greenwich. I think that this is a wise move and needs to be supported, mergers don’t and shouldn’t always means the loss of institutional identities.

This is not the first higher education merger, the City St Georges merger happened last year. However, this is the first merger between two large universities. 

As the BBC notes, The plans unveiled on Wednesday are on a bigger scale, with two universities offering a full range of courses and spread over a wider geographical area.

It’s interesting to see the BBC call it the first merger, is there anticipation that there will be more mergers in the future.

The Department for Education welcomed the merger, a spokesperson said: “This collaboration shows how strong partnerships in higher education can help enable delivery of world-class teaching and research whilst maintaining the best interests of students.”

So is this the start of something, we will have to wait and see.

One question though might need asking, what about the other two universities based in Canterbury, what are they thinking?

altc2025, weeknotes

Opportunities for efficiency – Weeknote #340 – 5th September

Leave a comment

Back to work after a week off. August is quite quiet for Jisc, partly as it is quiet for higher education. September though, is when it all kicks off. Though saying that, last week another blog post on the Jisc websites, Setting the foundations for successful collaboration was published.

Convincingly making the case for collaboration across the higher education sector for better student experiences is crucial, but how do you get key people on board for institutional and personal buy-in?

As with most content that I have published on the Jisc website, it was a group effort in writing it. It has developed and changed since I originally proposed the idea. It complements the post It’s better together – how to make the case for collaboration which was published the week before.

This week saw the publication by UUK and Jisc of the report, Opportunities for efficiency through shared services.

The Universities UK (UUK) commissioned report, led by Jisc, presents a compelling case for a sector-wide action plan. New recommendations, published today, outline opportunities for smarter collaboration across the UK higher education (HE) sector, drawing on the long history of successful shared services that play a vital role in securing improved user experience and significant university cost savings through greater efficiency.

The report, developed under the UUK Transformation and Efficiency Taskforce, calls on universities to make best use of existing, underutilised shared services to fully support entrepreneurial, locally driven initiatives and encourage nationwide growth. It highlights that while shared services like UCAS and Jisc’s Janet Network are used right across UK HE, most others remain underutilised due to lack of awareness, funding, and strategic coordination.

I did a significant amount of work on this report; it was one of three that we worked on as part of strand 2.

I was invited to attend the Universities UK’s Annual Conference 2025 which was taking place this week at the University of Exeter. Exeter is just over an hour away down the M5, so quite an easy place to get to. Jisc’s CEO was delivering two sessions supporting the publication of the report.

It was a good conference with some very good sessions and insights.  I am though reminded of the recent post I wrote about hindsight in which I looked at the challenges and change that Intel and Kodak faced, and some would say failed to adapt to. I had listened to a podcast, which discussed how Kodak did not adapt well to the digital revolution in photography. It was interesting as it wasn’t as though Kodak ignored digital, they actually produced a handheld digital camera back in 1975.

The current economic climate and the state of financial sustainability is here, and universities know this. This was expressed many times during the conference. However 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.

Usually at the time of year I would be off to the ALT Conference, well I didn’t go last year. This year the conference is taking place later in October up in Glasgow. As my role is less about learning technology and more about strategic operational issues, the value of the conference to my work is less than in other years. There are some interesting looking sessions on the programme, so it’s on my list of possible conferences, but we will have to see.

I had a couple of meetings about NRENS 4 Education (or E in NREN as I have bene referring to it on the blog).

weeknotes

It’s better together – Weeknote #338 – 22nd August

Leave a comment

I was on leave at the beginning of the week, which was nice.

A blog post on the Jisc websites, It’s better together – how to make the case for collaboration was published.

Convincingly making the case for collaboration across the higher education sector for better student experiences is crucial, but how do you get key people on board for institutional and personal buy-in?

As with most content that I have published on the Jisc website, it was a group effort in writing it. It has developed and changed since I originally proposed the idea.

This was one piece of communications that will support the publication of a report into one of the strategic online cases that Jisc developed as part of the Transformation & Efficiency Taskforce strand 2 work.

I have another blog post being posted next week as well.

We have been making final tweaks to the NREN 4 Education proposal in preparation for a meeting in September. Always challenging to undertake this work over the summer with people taking holidays or even closing down.

weeknotes

OKRing – Weeknote #337 – 15th August

Leave a comment

For part of this week (well the end of the week) I was on leave.

We had a team meeting about our team OKRs.

OKR, which stands for Objectives and Key Results, is a goal-setting framework used to define and track objectives and their measurable outcomes. It helps organizations align on goals, improve focus, and drive progress. OKRs consist of a qualitative, inspirational Objective and several quantitative Key Results that define how to achieve the objective.

It’s very easy for a team (or an individual for that matter) to have an ill-defined or woolly objective about the year ahead.

In the past and in previous roles I very much asked to deliver SMART objectives.

A SMART objective is a goal that adheres to a framework of five criteria: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant (or Realistic), and Time-bound. This structured approach clarifies what needs to be done, how to track progress, and when to expect results, fostering greater focus, accountability, and success in achieving objectives for individuals, teams, and organizations.

I can see with the OKR approach, which doesn’t ignore the concept of SMART is that there is an overlying overall (inspirational) objective.

It can be quite challenging to write OKRs and if you haven’t done it before, it is even more challenging. Of course with an ever changing landscape, the ability of an organisation to be agile and responsive is important, but having an OKR scaffolding will allow an organisation to ascertain if there should be a change in direction, what is a priority and what isn’t? What do we need to stop doing, what should we do now, and do we need more resources.

Any organisation needs to balance the requirements of being reactive to changes, but also proactive in planning for the year ahead. OKRs do allow for that forward planning, but should incorporate flexibility and agility as well.

Writing in a notebook
Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Continued to review the most recent draft of our NREN 4 Education proposal.

UUK and Jisc are planning to publish one of the strategic outline cases as a public report. It will also be supported by two blog posts which will have my name on. Spent some of the week discussing, editing and writing aspects for that process.

weeknotes

The year ahead – Weeknote #336 – 8th August

Leave a comment
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

First week of the year, the new Jisc year starts 1st August. There have been some organisational changes in my directorate, however, doesn’t impact me personally very much.

I have been planning for the next twelve months. My main priorities are focused on three key areas.

  • First, I’m continuing to build on the work of NRENs (National Research and Education Networks) across Europe, particularly by focusing on the topic of student mobility within the education field.
  • Second, I’m analysing the implications of the new Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) for higher education, with a specific focus on how it will impact Jisc’s work in the areas of digital technology and data.
  • Finally, I’m continuing to work on initiatives that promote collaboration and knowledge sharing. This includes building on the findings of last year’s report, Collaboration for a Sustainable Future, and the work of Universities UK’s Transformation and Efficiency Taskforce. The goal for the coming year is to help the sector act on these recommendations and build a more collaborative future.

This is all subject to change as the priorities for the year ahead might flex and change.

I have also been looking at the possible conferences I might attend to support this work. Some I expect I may try and get a speaking slot; others will be more about my professional and personal development.

I have been reviewing a proposal which took a lot longer than I thought it would.

We have been working with UUK on releasing some of the outputs from the Transformation and Efficiency Taskforce that I both supported and helped to write.

Finally I have been writing up my forms for my Q4 review.

weeknotes

Quiet – Weeknote #335 – 1st August

Leave a comment

Final week of the year, the new Jisc year starts 1st August.

This time of year is somewhat quiet with both universities empty and a lot of colleagues in Jisc taking a summer break. I had a break earlier in July, but am planning to take some, more time off later in August.

Having finalised virtually everything that needed doing for the last year, I have started planning for the next twelve months.

I have three key things to work on. The first is continuing the work on E in NREN, working with colleagues across Europe on building on the work of NRENs in the education field, and in the main student mobility.

The second is looking at the Lifelong Learning Entitlement (LLE) and what this means for higher education in the realm of digital, data, and technology, and what are the implications for Jisc’s work.

The third focus is also a continuation piece, working on sharing and collaboration. Last year we published Collaboration for a Sustainable Future, and I also spent a lot of time working on strand 2 for UUK’s Transformation and Efficiency Taskforce. Next year is looking at how Jisc can support the sector on building on both the report, and the work of the taskforce.

weeknotes

Radical Collaboration – Weeknote #334 – 25th July

Leave a comment

I headed to the Bristol office this week, in the main as the car was getting a service, but also, I do like working in the office on a regular basis.

This week saw the publication of the Radical Collaboration Playbook.  This report is one of the key outputs for Universities UK’s (UUK) transformation and efficiency taskforce which was established in December 2024 to understand where further opportunities for universities to save costs and transform their operations exist. It has become clear in this process that one of the greatest opportunities lies in collaboration – in building on what exists and in finding novel ways to deepen partnerships across the sector.

This is quite a substantial piece of work, covering 74 pages. My first reading and first impressions was that this was a detailed piece of work and certainly well worth looking at if you are looking at mergers, collaboration, or sharing. Though one question it doesn’t, and couldn’t answer, is when do you make the decision to merge? Do you wait until everything is falling apart or even afterwards? Do you plan for that possible future now? Or, what about biting the bullet and merging now, before things get bad.

This is the outcome from strand 3 of the UUK Phase 1 Transformation and Efficiency Taskforce. I have spent much of the last year working on strand 2.

Though there appears to be an appetite for collaboration, I haven’t seen much evidence for actual collaboration or sharing over the last twelve months. Will that change over the next year, who knows!

people
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Went through a third draft of my objectives for next year. Our year runs from August to July, in line with the academic calendar. They cover three main areas, continuing the E in NREN work I have been doing, likewise a similar objective looking at optimisation and collaboration. The third objective is looking at the LLE (Lifelong Learning Entitlement) in UK higher education and what it means for Jisc.

weeknotes

Refreshment – Weeknote #333 – 18th July

Leave a comment
slice of lemon
Image by Myriams-Fotos from Pixabay

Back at work this week after taking a week’s leave and a holiday. There were just 111 emails in my inbox, I had cleared my inbox before going on holiday. As many were updates, spam, and various Teams notifications, it didn’t take long to clear them out. What I did find was that there were three new pieces of mandatory refresher training. Well, that made it clear what I needed to do this week.

Tuesday, I headed into the Bristol office to work. It had been a while since I was last in the office, well two weeks ago, and I had been on leave for a week. I usually try and get to the office at least once a week, though if I am away at an event or a conference, I may miss that week.

There was lots of rain on Tuesday, so plans for a nice lunchtime walk were thrown out of the window.

Started working on my objectives for next year, the new Jisc year starts 1st August. I also started a new Confluence site and will set up a new JIRA project as well for task management.

I was on leave on Friday.