Tag Archives: taskforce on efficiency and transformation in higher education

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).

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

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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.

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Radical Collaboration – Weeknote #334 – 25th July

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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.

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It’s Tuesday, so it must be Nottingham – Weeknote #330 – 27th June 2025

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This week I was up in Nottingham attending and presenting at Networkshop. My session was on collaboration. I did enjoy the keynotes from the conference, listening to Klaas Wierenga on the history of eduroam was insightful. I can’t quite believe that eduroam in less than twenty four years old, then again Wi-Fi isn’t that old really either. It was nice to meet up with colleagues from Jisc at the conference as well.

Nottingham is quite a trek from Weston so it takes a while both to get there and get back.

My first visit to Nottingham was as a child visiting my aunt and uncle. My main memory was thinking how small Sherwood Forest was and how on earth did Robin Hood hide from the Sheriff of Nottingham when the forest was so small… Of course what I didn’t realise was back then the forest was huge in comparison to the size of the forest today.

Over the last twenty five years I have made quite a few visits to Nottingham, for events, conferences, and sometimes staying there when travelling further north.

Exploring the city now I realise I still don’t really know the place and found it hard to get my bearings. I would walk up one street and find myself somewhere completely different to where I expected to be.

I did spend some time reviewing one of the business cases for the UUK project I am working on, going through the comments from various stakeholders. I did need to write some new sections, and other areas needed a rewrite.

I also looked at the concept plan for the NREN work I am participating in.

At the end of the week I took a volunteering day, it’s nice that Jisc allows staff to take time off for volunteering.

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Towards a new era of collaboration – Weeknote #327 – 6th June 2025

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Titanic Belfast
Titanic Belfast by James Clay

Having spent last week in Brussels, this week I was over in Belfast attending the EUNIS 25 Congress. I was supporting a workshop session on student mobility. as part of our work on NRENs for Education, or as I have been calling it internally E in NREN.

There were lots of interesting sessions, I think for me one of the challenges the sector faces, is that yes there are data and technical issues that need resolving, but there are only part of the solution. Some of the real challenges is rethinking the operating model and making those cultural process changes required to take advantage of the work being undertaken with standards and data.

Spent some time preparing for events and meetings I am attending in Brighton at TNC25.

The Universities UK Transformation and Efficiency Taskforce have published their first report, Towards a new era of collaboration.

Universities UK’s (UUK) transformation and efficiency taskforce was established in response to significant financial pressure on the higher education sector in all four nations of the UK. Our aim is to tackle the challenges we collectively face, to support the efforts of individual universities to achieve greater efficiency, and to seek opportunities for collective action to help our universities go further and faster than they can alone. This report is the first of three outputs from the taskforce, and together these mark Phase 1 of a long-term commitment to embark on a new era of collaboration.

I have been working on phase two of the work, though not sure if there will be a similar public facing publication.

As with much of the communication about collaboration, the challenges facing the sector, means the real challenge for many universities will be taking that first step towards collaboration. What and where should a university collaborate and with whom.

WonkHE had this perspective on the publication.

The case for university collaboration in the UK has been made with increasing frequency as the financial squeeze starts to make itself felt in profound ways. That said, there has been little tangible activity – the report points to longstanding structures such as the University of London federation, existing networks of research collaborations, and strategic working with local stakeholders. The taskforce adds the multi-academy trust-esque group structures employed by the (HE and FE) University of the Highlands and (cross sector) London South Bank to the list., and there is a nod to the world of sharing expensive research infrastructure too.

Interesting blog from the Competition and Markets Authority

Our universities are one of the UK’s greatest success stories – they produce world-class research, drive innovation across the economy and remain critical to equipping people with the skills they need to get on in life. Skills are, of course, crucial to economic growth and a successful industrial strategy, both of which we support. However, we know that many higher education providers are facing very challenging financial situations and that greater collaboration between universities could help support the sector. This is where competition law – and the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) – can play a role. While some collaborations are more problematic under competition law, there are many areas where they are beneficial and pose no competition law risks. We can also support collaborations that benefit the UK by making clear that we won’t prioritise enforcement.

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Is anything changing? – Weeknote #322 – 2nd May 2025

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wood

Spent much of the week working on the UUK Collaboration project with various meetings and events.

I was in London for the UUK’s The University Transformation and Efficiency Summit, where I delivered a workshop on shared services.

HE has many existing shared services. Some are so fundamental it is now hard to imagine the sector without them: e.g. the UCAS admissions service, and the Janet network. Getting a new shared service off the ground feels difficult, but with hindsight successful shared services appear obvious.  

Good shared services are built on strong relationships and trust between the parties. They require standardisation and alignment: institutions willing to adapt their ways to working to fit with the wider group. Join this session to meet others and become part of the coalition of the willing, those working together to share services, for the benefit of all. 

This session will present findings from the Jisc/KPMG report ‘Collaboration for a Sustainable Future’. It will hear case studies of institutions currently offering their services to other universities, and what they learnt through establishing them.

The workshop went down well, but on the train home I reflected if the real challenge was talking to those institutions who didn’t attend and aren’t engaged with the transformation possibilities that are being discussed as part of the work of the Transformation and Efficiency Taskforce.

As well as presenting in London I also was attending and presenting at the online HE Shared Services and Structural Collaboration Conference.

I delivered a session entitled A Roadmap for Shared Service Collaboration on Data, Digital and Technology.

  • The starting point: Where does successful tech collaboration exist already in the sector and what are the priority areas for partnership?
  • Where is there potential for shared procurement and system management that continues to support differentiation?
  • What are the opportunities for rationalisation through shared digital services?
  • How can the sector support meaningful transformation through common models, standardisation and central coordination?
  • What are the next steps from Jisc and the wider sector to drive this agenda forward?

There are some real challenges in moving to an operating model that takes advantage of the potential lower costs and efficiencies in using shared services, but there are also the compromises that have to be made.

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Through the medium of dance – Weeknote #319 – 11th April 2025

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Image by Bernard-Verougstraete from Pixabay

On Monday I was prepping stuff for the rest of the week. In the main developing and writing activity for UUK Transformation and Efficiency Taskforce meeting. This involved diamonds and scissors.

I spent the day in London on Tuesday, the afternoon was taken up with the UUK Transformation and Efficiency Taskforce meeting, however as I had a two hour online meeting with the HEAnet Group Advisory Forum I spent the morning in the office.

I had some necessary Dovetail admin and Miro admin to do this week. I hadn’t used Miro for weeks and then all of a sudden, I was asked to input to an influx of Miro boards. I do use Miro, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I don’t much like the alternatives either.

We had a discussion about capturing the senior voice and then what do we do with that once we have that. A bit of we can’t please all of the people all of the time.

Spent some time planning a session for AHUA Conference next week, which is taking place at Swansea University.

Recognised the need to plan out E in NREN work I am undertaking in some more detail. It has been agreed that this will continue into 2026.

I am attending and presenting at a couple of online conferences later this month, so spent time planning, developing and writing those presentations. Yes you would be right in thinking there will be lots of photographs.

Image by Tom from Pixabay

Noted that the situation in higher education is still not good, and in some sense is getting worse.

As higher education institutions shed thousands of jobs, Times Higher are tracking developments and bringing together latest analysis with resources for affected staff and students.

As a mounting financial crisis grips UK universities, thousands of jobs are being axed across the sector. This page tracks latest updates, exploring the reasons behind the redundancies, how they will affect staff and students, and the long-term impact on higher education and research.

In similar news the sustainability of higher education was discussed at Parliament. Where the Augar report was reviewed as Education Committee learn about university finances

Notably, Augar argued that no university should fail – the impact on local areas and the international reputation of the sector would be too big – and called for “behind the scenes” support for struggling providers. Universities UK’s Malcolm Press argued once again for a transformation fund to support universities in adapting to the current circumstances.

Our work with UUK was mentioned in passing.

Malcolm Press (vice chancellor at Manchester Metropolitan University, at the committee representing Universities UK) emphasised just how hard universities were working to drive efficiencies – highlighting examples of collaboration, and the ongoing Universities UK project in response to the government’s reform agenda.

Made me smile for the end of the week. This from WonkHE on Sussex on taking the position that universities can’t prohibit any speech unless it’s already explicitly banned by civil or criminal law.

 “The University would have to tolerate an academic conducting every lecture through the medium of song or mime (noting that freedom of speech protects the manner of speech as well as the content).”

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I haz a cold… – Weeknote #307 – 17th January 2025

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The week started off well, but by the end of the week I was off sick with a bad cold.

Have been having meetings with UUK in regard to strand two of the work of UUK’s Taskforce on Efficiency and Transformation in Higher Education. Strand two covers: Developing detailed business cases on options for national collaboration, which will be externally published, and will give the sector clear paths towards transformation. This builds on the recent report I worked on, Collaboration for a sustainable future which looked at collaboration and shared services.

On Thursday, decided I would get to London for our team away day. It was exhausting and certainly I regret a little bit in heading off there feeling rough as I did.