Tag Archives: tnc 26

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Helsinki isn’t all that bad – Weeknote #380 – 12th June 2026

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Linus Torvalds, the Finnish software engineer and creator of Linux, famously captured the essence of his hometown with this quote:

“Helsinki isn’t all that bad. It’s a very nice city, and it’s cold really only in wintertime.”

I was in Helsinki in February 2025 when a workshop was held to see what potential there was for NRENs to collaborate and work together to deliver on the potential of student mobility.

I was not in Helsinki this week for TNC 2026. For a variety of reasons not attending TNC this year, which is taking place in Helsinki in Finland. One of the side meetings is the inaugural meeting of the new GÉANT Education Digital Infrastructure and Interoperability Coordination Group which is essentially an evolution of the NRENS4Education group. I was, though, able to join remotely. I had also recorded a video in case the remote connection failed. 

I had bought some accessories for my iPhone for shooting the video, a  Mini Wireless Lavalier Microphone, a 128 LED Rechargeable Portable Selfie Light  and a YZNT tripod mount. I liked the fact the microphone came with some windproof heads for using the mics outside. I have been thinking about rebooting the elearning stuff podcast.

One gadget I had back around 2010 was the Edirol R-09HR 24bit 96kHz Wave/MP3 Recorder which was an audio recorder, which was great for recording audio files direct to an SD card. You could use it to record mp3 and WAV files. This is now a retired product, I am not sure what products are out there that would fulfil the use cases that the Edirol did. Not sure if the iPhone is an adequate replacement, but it’s being a while since I looked at audio stuff.

Watched the WWDC keynote from Apple about their work on Apple Intelligence. I realise that in the world of AI, I am way behind in this space and this was one thing I was doing as part of my personal development to update my understanding.

Spent much of the rest of the week supporting staff.

Friday I made my way to the Bristol office. Nice to have a change in pace, location and routine.

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EDII are you okay? Are you okay? Are you okay, EDII? – Weeknote #379 – 5th June 2026

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Full week in the office, well one day in the office, full week of working.

The weather turned after last week’s heatwave and we went back to the usual British weather of grey cloud and rain.

I had a busy week with stuff, which for confidentiality reasons I can’t disclose here. However, it entailed lots of reading, meetings, conversations and discussion.

coffee
Image by David Schwarzenberg from Pixabay

I also spent time planning the TNC side meetings next week, I am for a variety of reasons not attending TNC this year, which is taking place in Helsinki in Finland. One of the side meetings is the inaugural meeting of the new GÉANT Education Digital Infrastructure and Interoperability Coordination Group which is essentially an evolution of the NRENS4Education group.

I have been working with the consultancy team at Jisc on various aspects of current projects and possible projects.  

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HOT! – Weeknote #378 – 29th May 2026

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Most of this week I was on leave or it was a bank holiday, so was in the office for just two days. With soaring temperatures I actually went into the office, as it does have air conditioning and was a nicer environment for working in.

I took the time to finish off some mandatory training that needed to be done. These were two year refresher renewal modules that needed to be done. I have a strategy that when these come in, I prioritise them to get then done and dusted. In the past, like many other people, I would know that I needed to get them done, but then other stuff needed doing, so they were left. Then the deadline would arrive and it was all hands to the deck to get them done. Sometimes this would impact on other deadlines. So, despite sometimes the lack of urgency (initially) with mandatory training, it is important, so I devote time to going through the modules and passing the tests.

For a variety of reasons I won’t be attending TNC this year, which is taking place in Helsinki in Finland. My first (and only) TNC was last year in Brighton. In reality I was less interested in the conference (which is interesting) but was looking forward to attending some side meetings about education. However, I have been helping in the planning and the organisation of these said meetings.

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Is unbookable a word? – Weeknote #376 – 15th May 2026

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A quiet week for me, though there were a few events running this week, including Jisc’s Connect More. I did get to the Bristol office for one day.

I finished writing my blog post on bookable and unbookable desks, PCs, and sun loungers following a couple of BBC News articles.

Reminds me why I never used PC booking software when running my libraries. Students would reserve PCs with their “towels” and then never turn up. The PC was unused and unavailable for others to use.

sun loungers by a pool
Photo by Andres Siimon on Unsplash

News of another higher education merger hit the headlines, with KCL and Cranfield planning to merge next year. I suspect we will hear about more mergers over the next couple of years. I also suspect we might see some higher education institutions close after the OfS and HESA published financial information about the sector, and in some cases the optimism of the sector, which if doesn’t come to pass may see places close. The Office for Students says that there is widespread and persistent over-optimism about sector finances. What this means is that if plans don’t come to fruition then the only choice might be closure (or forced merger).

The WonkHE analysis (as usual) was excellent.

David Kernohan digests this year’s OfS summary of annual financial returns, and the parallel release of HESA finance data

The priority will be the students.

In LLE news we saw 130 providers approved for LLE provision.

These providers will be able to offer short courses with a January 2027 start date that are fundable (pro rata to academic credit) via the LLE.

So not quite the broad range of providers that the promise of LLE said would happen.

I was doing some planning for TNC 26 even though I am not attending the conference.

I was editing a post on the blog from May 2019 (there was an issue with one of the images) when I read this.

…it was an earlier start than normal as I had a meeting with some European colleagues about a workshop we’re running at TNC in June in Tallinn in Estonia.

Now I know I didn’t attend TNC 19 in Estonia, so when I did some digging into my email archive and saw that there was quite a bit of chat and conversations. The core of which was the creation of GÉANT’s TF-EDU (Task Force Education) including a draft proposal for the group. I didn’t realise (well didn’t remember) that I was involved back then. Getting old!

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“O, the month of May, the merry month of May” – Weeknote #374 – 1st May 2026

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I headed to the office on Monday. The rest of the week I was working from home, in the main as I had number of online meetings and as I have mentioned before I don’t really see the value of heading off to Bristol, spending time (and money) commuting, to then frantically book meeting rooms for various online meetings, moving around during the day. If I have a lot of online meetings then I prefer to work from home and take them there. Having said that, I did have a couple of short calls on Monday, one was a team update, the other was a workshop planning session.

This week I was part of a panel session looking at LLE. My focus was on the importance of the student experience, the data journey, and the  necessity of the sector to adhere to standards and enable interoperability. Without this then there will be an administrative burden on both the students and the institutions. I did note some thoughts about the financial viability of LLE.

Had a planning meeting about a workshop at TNC 26 in Helsinki, unfortunately I am unable to attend TNC this year.

I have been doing some quality assurance for one of our consultancy projects. It has been interesting to undertake this and makes a nice change from my usual routine.