August is a quiet time in higher education. University campuses, usually bustling with staff and students, become a calm oasis of peace. As with many organisations associated with education, Jisc is less busy and quieter.

I have been working on a report, which has required, interviews with key stakeholders across higher education, and so it has been somewhat of a relief that people have been around for those conversations.

On Tuesday I headed down the Solent way to Southampton by train for a lunch meeting with some senior colleagues from Solent University. It was a really useful meeting to discuss their challenges and how Jisc could help and support them. I also took the opportunity to test the waters of the report we’re producing on collaboration.

It’s the time of year where I get told to refresh my mandatory training, this time it was Data Protection and Information Security. I generally try and get these done, as soon as I am notified it is needed. In the past (in previous jobs) I would de-prioritise this kind of activity, as I would be busy doing other things. Then it would either be at or pass the deadline. The training would then be rushed, and a manager would be chasing me. Now I just get it done, it gets prioritised, so that it’s less of a worry and an annoyance.

In a similar vein, I did my end of year review paperwork as well. This is relatively easy to do as I record weekly activities, and these feed into both the review paperwork and these weeknotes.