Category Archives: weeknotes

weeknotes

Don’t wait for the translation! Answer me now! – Weeknote #348 – 31st October

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Pumpkins

On Monday I was in London, along with my colleague, I was delivering a presentation about Jisc to a delegation of Koreans from KERIS. They were on a study tour of the UK and had asked to see Jisc and hear about who we support higher education. It was an interesting experience presenting and then waiting for the translation, before continuing the delivery. Likewise answering question was equally challenging. I wrote up about the visit for an internal blog.

I was involved in various meetings about a workshop I am helping to deliver next week in Amsterdam.

I spent a lot of time analysing the recent higher education white paper and what it means for higher education, Jisc, and what we can do to support the sector. There was a lot of discussion in the paper about collaboration and sharing.

Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay
Image by StartupStockPhotos from Pixabay

I noted that Advance HE are getting into the collaboration space as announced on the WonkHE site.

On the site this morning, Alistair Jarvis sets out for the first time his plans for Advance HE to focus its offer to members on transformation and change. Recognising that the sector’s challenges will necessitate significant transformation agendas, innovation and a different set of leadership skills, Jarvis commits to modernising the sector’s development agency and putting transformation and change “at the heart of what Advance HE does.” A new strategic advisory group will support in-house expertise to embed transformation support across all Advance HE’s programmes, products, and services.

Read more on Wonkhe.

There are some interesting comments in the article and the primary focus of Advance HE now to be on transformation and change (rather than improvement).

Firstly, we have made supporting transformation and change a core part of our membership offer.

They indicate that they will do this by:

Supporting enhancement, change and transformation will now be at the heart of what Advance HE does – embedded across our member benefits, our programmes and our consultancy. To help institutions through these challenging times we will apply our expertise, experience and resources to best support enhancement and service improvement, where it is needed.

As we know transformation is usually enhanced and enabled by digital, data and technology. The next comment shows a potential opportunity for Jisc as well.

Collaborating with partner organisations that are supporting transformation and change will be central to our approach. Blending our expertise in leadership development, educational excellence, equality and inclusion, governance effectiveness with the experience of partners that have different but complementary skills and capabilities.

They also see that they have a role for mergers as well as less formal collaboration as well.

…we have launched the Merger Insights and Roadmap, a new resource for navigating institutional collaboration, partnerships and mergers.

Interesting times.

altc2025, weeknotes

Reforming Higher Education – Weeknote #347 – 24th October

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The big story this week was the publication of the e government’s post-16 education and skills white paper.

What is in the post-16 education and skills white paper for higher education? Well WonkHE as per usual does a really good job of analysing what was in it for higher education.

In terms of strategic ambition, there are five objectives for the sector: economic growth, a high quality experience, national capability via specific research and skills development, regional impact, and an increase in international standing. In the international domain, these translate into global standing, nationally to government goals on growth, security and skills, regionally to meeting skills needs through collaboration, and at provider level, to specialisation and efficiency.

There was much discussion about collaboration and sharing by providers, as well as a focus on specialisation.

Though the news about increased fees will be welcomed by institutions, I wonder what the reaction will be from prospective students. Yes, student fee debt, is not really debt as often explained by Martin Lewis, but as he says the amount you borrow is mostly irrelevant day to day – it works more like a tax. The reality is that extra 9% tax on earnings above £25,000 will make a difference, in terms of things like mortgage affordability, but also when comparing graduate income levels to non-graduate income levels. Throw in the temptations of a degree apprenticeship where there are no fees and debts (and you get paid). Could we see a paradigm shift in young people going to university? There is no longer talk about 50% of young people going to university, this has been swapped with the two-thirds under-25 participation in higher-level learning.

Next week we have a Korean delegation from KERIS visiting us in our London offices. With over twenty five delegates there was some logistical stuff to sort out, as well as my travel.

I continued working on the E in NREN project, planning for two workshops in November, as well as thinking about a session at TNC 26 in Helsinki in June next year.

At the end of the week I was in Glasgow for the Association for Learning Technology Conference (ALT-C). This year it is both shorter than usual, later than usual. Unlike previous conferences, it is taking place in a hotel rather than an university. In the past ALT-C was a three day conference, this year it was concentrated into two days.

I really enjoyed and got a lot out of the conference. I have been part of this community for over twenty years, attending my first ALT-C back in 2003.

altc2025, weeknotes

Making preparations – Weeknote #346 – 17th October

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laptop
Image by fancycrave1 from Pixabay

Though I tested negative for covid I am still feeling the after effects of having had covid. I am not too surprised by this as my last experience with covid back in 2021 was horrific. This week though I was mainly working from home. I had planned to get to the Bristol office, but there were some issues with the car park.

I spent time planning various trips, conferences, events and visits that are happening over the next few months.

I was supporting the planning and design of some workshops that will take place in Amsterdam in November.

Next week I am in Glasgow for ALT-C. I didn’t go last year for various reasons, though I did enjoy attending in 2023 at Warwick. I am not presenting, but am interested in having conversations about collaboration, sharing, and student mobility.

weeknotes

Traitorous cooperation – Weeknote #345 – 10th October

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The week before I was quite unwell with covid. I was getting better, so I did another test and this one came back negative. I wasn’t 100%, but I did think I was well enough to travel to Birmingham for a couple of days. We had a team away day on Tuesday and an all staff conference on the Wednesday.

Jisc is very much a hybrid geographically distributed organisation across the UK, so more often than not, conversations and discussion is over Teams. So, it makes a nice change to actually meet in person and chat and discuss stuff.

On Monday the day before I headed off to Birmingham, we had a meeting about collaboration. I was reminded of the article I wrote on blocking collaboration back in 2022.

Collaboration is defined in the dictionary as: traitorous cooperation with an enemy. That may not mean what we think when we say collaboration. Of course there is another definition which is: the action of working with someone to produce something.

I concluded that collaboration does require teams to plan and think about their ways of working. Compromises have to be made to ensure effective collaboration. You have to trust, and trust is a two way street.

It is looking like I will be travelling to the Netherlands quite a bit over the next few months delivering workshops and attending various meetings. One of things I will need to do before all that is renew my passport. In theory I have just under three months left on my passport, reality is that I need to have at least three months left on my passport if I am going to travel. I will be losing my nice burgundy passport and getting a new blue one.

The BBC reports on an UCU analysis which shows universities have collectively announced more than 12,000 job cuts in the last year. The article discusses not just the closure of courses, but also cuts to services for students. Could the ongoing financial crisis for the sector actually become worse, as some young people decide that an deprecated student experience isn’t the experience that they want from university, and choose a different path.

weeknotes

Back to Covid – Weeknote #344 – 3rd October

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man with facemask
Image by pisauikan from Pixabay

Felt rough on Monday, signed myself off sick, read this BBC report, and said to myself, James you’ve got Covid.

If you feel unwell with a bad throat and a temperature you may well have caught one of the new strains of Covid circulating this autumn. XFG, called Stratus by some, and NB.1.8.1, known as Nimbus, are now the most common variants being passed around in the UK, according to officials, external.

Got some tests.

Yes, I have Covid.

weeknotes

Going Dutch – Weeknote #343 – 26th September

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This week I was in the Netherlands in the main for a GÉANT TF-EDU (Education Taskforce) meeting but was also attending the 1EdTech Learning Impact conference before ending the week meeting up with Dutch colleagues from SURF.

I was quite impressed that Amsterdam was only a one hour flight time from Bristol to Amsterdam, so spent longer at Bristol waiting for boarding, and just as long at Amsterdam going through passport control. You have to say the process of doing this at one end for the Eurostar and DFDS ferries at Dover makes the disembarkation process so much faster.

The first part of the week was spent in Delft, which I have never been to before. It’s a beautiful city, though as is the case with attending meetings and conferences, I spent a lot of time in the conference venue, with just a short amount of time to explore and enjoy the sights of Delft.

I hadn’t originally planned to attend 1EdTech Learning Impact conference when I was doing my conference planning earlier in the year, but it was recommended to me by my SURF colleagues and when I looked over the programme I saw that my CEO Heidi was presenting.

Though the education landscape across Europe has a lot of similarities with the UK there are also lots of differences.

When I was at the Western Colleges Consortium back in the 2000s I was very much aware of the standards issues and interoperability. Now looking at the current landscape, standards and interoperability at an institutional level is mature.

Whereas standards and interoperability at a national level is challenging, especially in relation to student mobility and LLE requirements. Though students can move between institutions it is a difficult process with a lot of duplication and repetition. Access, authentication, and authorisation also becomes a barrier rather than an enabler. Standards and interoperability at an international level is virtually non-existent, especially in relation to student mobility.

Alongside the planned meetings and the conference, I also engaged in various side meetings and conversations with European colleagues, and UK based delegates.

weeknotes

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past – Weeknote #342 – 19th September

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This week I actually spent three days of my working week, working in the Bristol office. It was a very busy office, and as a result there was a real buzz. Some of my colleagues in my team were also in the office, so there was much discussion and in-person collaboration.

The beginning of the week I was in a meeting looking at improving internal communication and collaboration within our directorate. It was an interesting meeting.

Spent a lot of time on organising and planning next week. I am off to the Netherlands for a GÉANT TF-EDU (Education Taskforce) meeting in Delft and then will be attending the 1EdTech Learning Impact conference before ending the week meeting up with Dutch colleagues from SURF. I helped put together a presentation which Jisc will be presenting next week at the conference looking at sharing and collaboration.

I did look at travel options for the trip; my first choice was to actually drive and use the Harwich Hook of Holland ferry. Though this would take a lot more time, most of which would be driving to Harwich in Essex, which with charging would be a six or even seven hour drive followed by an eight hour ferry crossing. Another option was to catch the train. There are direct trains from London to Amsterdam, but the timings are challenging as it is a nearly a five hour train journey, but I would need to get to London first, and then at the other end get to Delft. In the end it was easier, quicker (and cheaper) to fly from Bristol. It’s a seventy-five minute flight, though I have to get from Schiphol to Delft, however that is less than an hour away on the train.

lecture theatre
Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay

The OfS has proposed a revised TEF (Teaching Excellence Framework) and is consulting how it assesses and regulates higher education. One key point is putting a lower burden on high-quality institutions; and increased scrutiny on weaker ones. There is still some reliance on NSS scores, which we know sometimes skews how universities interact with students.

There’s something for everyone in the latest rethink of the Teaching Excellence Framework, but as David Kernohan suggests at WonkHE, bringing disparate approaches together can highlight fundamental weaknesses.

weeknotes

Is it a bird… Is it a plane… No, it’s a super-university! – Weeknote #341 – 12th September

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The big news this week was the announcement of the merger between the University of Greenwich and the University of Kent. It is being called the creation of the “first” super university. I wrote about this on the day of the announcement. 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.

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

Also this week I published a couple of vision pieces on The University Group™ and The Specialist University Centre. With the recent announcement of the “first” university super merger between Greenwich and Kent, I was reminded of a piece of work I wrote last February, which never got further than my hard drive (well cloud storage). Also last week was the UUK Annual Conference, the then science secretary Peter Kyle was speaking on the second day, and calling for increasing specialisation and collaboration in higher education, which reminded me of another vision piece. So, I put them both on the blog.

One of the reports I have been working on this year was on subject collaboration within higher education. We did reference a previous British Academy report, so it was with interest that I read their recent report, which obviously focuses on the arts and social sciences. I wrote up some thoughts on the report and the implications for the UK higher education sector.

laptop
Image by fancycrave1 from Pixabay

On the 1st September we published a version of one of the reports I have been working on, this week I have been  working with others finalising the second report which will be sent to UUK members.

The NRENS 4 Education group I am part of had a meeting with the European Commission. The last time we met, it was in-person in Brussels, this time it was a Teams meeting, so no Belgian chocolates for me this time.

We had a discussion and reflected on UUK’s annual conference, which took place last week. Positive attitudes to collaboration, however still understanding the challenges in making it happen. The Kent and Greenwich merger may demonstrate one way forward.

Writing up a business case for visit to Netherlands and attendance at Learning Impact Europe 2025 Conference.

I have been invited to be a speaker at HE Transformation 2025, taking place 19 – 20 November at the NEC, Birmingham.

I did make it to our office in Bristol and London this week.

altc2025, weeknotes

Opportunities for efficiency – Weeknote #340 – 5th September

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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).