higher education business capability model

• Schools & departments

Capability Modelling

We can use business capabilities from the global Higher Education Reference Model as a foundation for a range of business analysis techniques. This approach is especially useful for larger transformation initiatives.

What is capability modelling?

Capability modelling is a technique that looks at what an organisation needs to be able to do to achieve a goal.  For example, to fulfill its teaching role, a University needs to be able to design a curriculum, recruit and enrol students, teach courses, assess exams, and confer degrees, as well as handling student administration and providing services to support student wellbeing.

Example benefits

A capability model can provide a firm foundation for further analysis, by being independent of how the University actually does  these things or which organisational units are responsible for them.

For example, one use may be to analyse which parts of the University currently provide each capability, and to flag areas where responsibility is unclear.

Another use may assess the University's strengths and weaknesses and to use the capability model to present this information.  In this example, the model is primarily used to aid communication and give the participants of the exercise a common view of the organisation.

A third use could be to identify those capabilities which are most closely linked to student satisfaction.

Other examples can link business capabilities to IT.  The capability model could be used to map the strengths and weaknesses of different vendors' student recruitment systems, for example.   Or it could be used to structure an IT service catalogue.

A short introduction

The following short video gives a short introduction to capability modelling and its benefits.

The Higher Education Reference Model

The Higher Education Reference Model (HERM) provides a common set of business capabilities for the higher education sector.  It was originally developed by CAUDIT in Australia and has been adopted across several countries, including by UCISA in the UK.

This model has been used to good effect in other universities in a number of ways.  The linked page gives an overview of the model, including a presentation and more information.  

University staff may access the HERM from the Digital Strategy SharePoint site.

Background information about the Higher Education Reference Model from UCISA

The Higher Education Reference Model (UoE SharePoint)

CAUDIT UCISA Joint Statement - Reference Models

The executive leadership of CAUDIT and UCISA support and encourage their respective Enterprise Architecture Communities of Practice to collaborate together, to explore opportunities and mutual advantages through harmonising the CAUDIT and UCISA reference models, and to work closely together to further develop the Business Capability and Data models as international reference models for the Higher Education sector.

This cooperation aligns with a common strategic intent to promote best practice through collaboration and sharing with our communities.

The CAUDIT Higher Education Reference Models were launched in April 2016 and have always been intended for use by institutions beyond Australia and New Zealand. Global applicability is committed as a design principle that guides the ongoing enhancement of these reference models, now in use across over three-hundred institutions worldwide. This goal values international partnerships and seeks to establish a common understanding of how our institutions operate in order to deliver value to our institutions and to the communities they serve.

The UCISA Capability Model published in March 2018 was developed from, and influenced by, the CAUDIT Business Reference Model. The UCISA working group incorporated changes, modifications, and developments to make the model more specific to the UK Higher Education Sector.

The UCISA Capability Model has reached beyond the UK sector and has been a catalyst for further collaboration and forging of links with the EUNIS Enterprise Architecture (EA) Special Interest Group. Through attending and presenting at a EUNIS EA event the CAUDIT and UCISA Communities of Practice have been able to connect and establish a dialogue. CAUDIT and ITANA have already established a collaborative arrangement for developing the Business and Data Models.

We recognise the valuable contributions of these individuals in bringing this collaboration together.

Term of the engagement 01 April 2021 - 30 March 2024

Download a copy of the Joint Statement using the link below.

Watch the V2.6.0 launch with UCISA here

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Digital transformation in higher education

A toolkit to support the development of digital strategies, assessment of digital maturity across the organisation and the creation of actionable roadmaps and plans for implementation.

The UK’s higher education sector needs to respond to frequent disruptions with strong leadership and resilience. Strategic long-term approaches are necessary to address challenges such as economic downturns, resource constraints, climate change, cyber security and digital and other inequalities. Additionally, agile responses are needed to address short-term disruptions such as pandemics, emerging technologies or localised events.

The complexities and range of business activities across a provider organisation can result in reactive, piecemeal responses to operational needs, which are often compounded by traditional hierarchical structures and ways of working. Effective and appropriate digital investment offers an opportunity to address inefficient and ineffective systems that hamper the practices of staff across the organisation. Digital investment, however, is not enough to stimulate the kind of organisational change that could bring efficiencies, support strategic missions and values and improve the work or learning experiences of staff and students and their well being.

“Digital transformation is a series of deep and coordinated culture, workforce, and technology shifts that enable new educational and operating models and transform an institution’s business model, strategic directions, and value proposition.” Brown et al. Digital Transformation Signals: Is Your Institution on the Journey? Enterprise Connections (blog), EDUCAUSE Review, May 12, 2020

Many people recognise that digital transformation (sometimes called DX) offers a more holistic approach that addresses the need for organisation-wide cultural, operational and technical shifts to transform business, change practices and achieve strategic vision and missions.

Digital transformation impact diagram Show

A diagram illustrating how digital transformation impacts on an organisation.

• Top left: Strategic vision - leadership, values, planning, investment
• Top right: People - expectations, activities, experiences, capabilities
• Bottom left: Infrastructure - systems, data, networks, physical spaces
• Bottom right: Core business activities - operations, workflows, processes, practices

Why digital transformation is important for HE

HE providers can learn from digital transformation approaches and models in other sectors, but they have unique needs and complexities that relate to their individual levels of digital maturity. Many are creating new digital transformation strategies and some are incorporating digital into existing strategies, but all are recognising the need for clarity around the role of digital in the delivery of institutional ambitions, missions and values.

“Effective digital transformation is a difficult problem to crack in any sector, and HE is probably a couple of steps behind other sectors. While everyone acknowledges the need for it, there’s a lack of understanding about how best to move forward. Jisc’s work in this area will be instrumental in enabling all HEIs to create their own digital transformation frameworks and strategies that balance pragmatism with innovation and ambition.“ Professor Raheel Nawaz, pro vice chancellor (digital transformation), Staffordshire University

Successful digital transformation requires effective digital leadership, appropriate investment, robust secure infrastructure, engaged stakeholders and digitally capable staff and students. The complexities and scale of higher education providers present challenges to achieving ambitious digital strategies.

Our 2023 digital strategies in UK higher education: making digital mainstream report offers insights into how universities are taking forward their digital strategies and explores the critical success factors for their implementation. In it, ten senior leaders outline their visions for digital and what they are putting in place to drive change forward – whether that be technical, cultural or pedagogical. We suggest some scenarios for how digital may change and expand provision and we offer some prompts for those tasked with developing a digital strategy.

Who should be involved in creating, leading and implementing digital transformation?

Although everyone in the organisation will be impacted by digital transformation strategy/ies it falls to senior leaders, governors, managers and change agents to create, lead and implement it/them. This will require coordination across a range of different roles and departments within organisational structures. Senior leadership teams need to be able to demonstrate and model effective digital leadership and engage stakeholders accordingly.

“How can we get people to acknowledge that work needs to be done? How can we get people and senior leaders to acknowledge that they need to be engaged with this? And I think there are certain things as senior leaders where you've got particular agency, you've got to get yourself out there and acknowledge and be seen to understand what it means to effect change for real people, you can't just put it in a policy and expect that's a job done, because it isn't.” Professor Paul Bartholomew, vice chancellor, Ulster University

Taking forward digital transformation in your organisation

“Our digital strategy is one of six enabling sub-strategies designed to support the university in achieving its ambitions. It's not a strategy for an IT department. It's an institutional strategy that touches all members of our community, and which required buy-in throughout the whole community. Digital transformation is an inevitable prerequisite to allow the university to achieve its priorities, its combination of people, process and technology led by digital and a fantastic team.” Dr Jodie Wetherall, associate director, Office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO), University of Greenwich

There is no single way to achieve digital transformation – it depends on the context of each organisation. Digital transformation activities and approaches should be founded on organisational goals and values, should reflect business ambitions and be implemented strategically. However, there are some common elements to the process that need to be addressed, and some of these will already be well established.

Digital transformation steps diagram Show

A diagram illustrating the steps to digital transformation.

• Aspiration: horizon scanning, organisational principles, business goals and ambitions, benchmarking
• Assess readiness: digital maturity, collate evidence, establish baselines, skills review, identify priorities
• Leadership: digital vision, aligning strategies, investment, stakeholder engagement, organisational roadmap
• Implementation: action plans, digital infrastructure, physical infrastructure, digital capability plan, changing practice
• Review: evaluation, measuring success, problem solving, revising plans

Questions to ask

“I often subscribe to the view that you shouldn’t have a digital strategy any more than you would have an electricity strategy. What matters is how digital supports the pillars of the university strategy. But sometimes it is useful to have a digital strategy, and a member of the top team with digital responsibility, so that there is something for digital to coalesce around.” Professor Susannah Quinsee, vice president (digital and student experience), City, University of London

Adopting a strategic approach to digital transformation can stimulate a review of existing processes, structures and management practices. It enables organisations to ask questions about their current state and to assess readiness, investment plans, governance and vision for the future, such as:

Vision and strategy:

• What is our vision for digital transformation and how does it align with our overall strategic goals (eg environmental sustainability, equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI), internationalisation, local and regional impact)?
• How will digital transformation help us to improve our services, operations and stakeholder experiences?
• What is our attitude to digital: is our main priority operational resilience and business continuity; enhancing the organisation's mission, or major changes to our business model?
• How can digital improve learning, teaching and assessment?
• How can digital drive our research forward?
• How can digital enhance the unique selling point and reputation of our institution?
• How do we benchmark ourselves across the sector?

Assess readiness

Readiness and current state:.

• What is our baseline in terms of digital maturity, and what are our biggest gaps?
• How digitally capable are our stakeholders (leaders, governors, staff, students, partners)?
• What evidence do we have about the ways that different staff (teaching, research, professional services, etc.) experience the digital environment?

Planning and prioritisation:

• What is our roadmap for digital transformation, and how do we plan to prioritise different initiatives?
• How will we balance the need for operational efficiency with the investment in digital transformation?

Governance and leadership:

• Is there sufficient digital awareness among the executive team and the board of governors for them to make informed decisions in strategic digital areas, to inspire and model good practice?
• What structures or mechanisms will we put in place to govern the digital transformation process?
• Which internal processes and governance structures need to change so that we can track the performance of our digital strategy and respond to new opportunities in an agile way?

Stakeholder engagement:

• How will we engage with different stakeholders during the transformation process?
• What communication strategy will we employ to manage change effectively?

Investment and resources:

• What kind of financial investment are we prepared to make in digital transformation?
• Do we have the necessary resources (human, technological, time) to implement our digital transformation strategy?

Implementation

Risk management:.

• What potential risks could we face when taking digital initiatives forward, and how do we plan to mitigate them?
• How do we plan to manage the cyber security risks associated with increased digitalisation?

Changing practice:

• What do we need to do to improve the digital competencies of all stakeholders?
• How do we work with stakeholders as partners in change?

Technology and infrastructure:

• Do we have the necessary secure and reliable technology infrastructure to support our digital transformation?
• How do we balance investment and effort to refresh, consolidate and/or integrate existing/legacy systems and services – and also develop new ones as appropriate?
• How can we ensure that physical and virtual infrastructure integrate efficiently and effectively to deliver strategic objectives?

Data management and security:

• How will we manage the increased volume and variety of data that comes with digitalisation?
• How do we improve the flow of data between systems to support informed decision making?
• How do we plan to ensure data privacy and protection in the new digital environment?

Performance measurement and review:

• How will we measure the success of our digital transformation initiatives and have we embedded ongoing review mechanisms?
• What key performance indicators (KPIs) will we use to monitor progress and adjust our strategy as necessary?

The process of asking and reflecting on these questions is an important start for any organisation when creating an effective digital transformation strategy that aligns with its vision, leverages its strengths and addresses its challenges.

“Digital transformation is at the heart of the University of Leeds’ strategy. There is complete senior buy-in, and commitment to resource, empower, engage and support colleagues and teams to harness technological progress delivering locally anchored global impact.” Professor Arunangsu Chatterjee, dean of digital transformation, University of Leeds

Digital transformation toolkit

We developed this toolkit to help you consider and reflect on these questions. We designed it to support digital transformation in the HE sector, from assessing digital maturity across the organisation to creating actionable roadmaps and plans for implementation. We offer a framework for digital transformation that provides a structure to guide the development of strategic vision and planning. It highlights how policies and processes might align to promote cross-team approaches to reduce complexity and fragmented processes. We had input from key UK higher education (HE) sector bodies and developed all the supporting materials through a robust review process with senior leaders from UK HE organisations and interested international representatives.

Read our framework for digital transformation in higher education

The framework offers a structure to inform digital transformation activities with a focus on fostering digital innovation, streamlining business processes and operations and developing partnerships for collaboration.

Download the maturity model for digital transformation (pdf) Download the maturity model for digital transformation (docx)

The maturity model uses the framework structure to illustrate different levels of digital maturity for each area of activity and across all aspects of business. The model describes sector benchmarks and supports organisations to identify their own baselines, from which to move forward. The maturity model reflects a ‘big picture’ view – it does not provide the level of detail that the action plans need to address.

Download the maturity model for digital transformation: action plan and roadmap (docx)

The action plan provides a practical template for organisations to produce detailed actionable plans to enhance their digital maturity. It prompts reflection on current maturity levels to identify actions, KPIs (key performance indicators) investment, responsible owners, relevant stakeholders, supporting resources and documents, and assign priority levels. The template is a companion document to the maturity model and can be used at organisation-wide level to produce a roadmap and/or at faculty/school/department level.

The process of creating action plans can inform/feed into the development of a digital transformation strategy or help to review and adjust an existing strategy. This process can also be used to consider digital aspects of all existing organisational strategies.

Download the maturity model for digital transformation: overview (docx) Download the maturity model for digital transformation: overview (pdf)

The maturity model guidelines suggest ways to use the suite of materials, with examples of how to make best use of the template.

• Digital strategies in UK higher education: making digital mainstream

A 2023 report offering an overview of how UK universities are developing and implementing their digital strategies.

Steps towards digital transformation

A practical guide to using the toolkit to support digital transformation in your organisation.

You can use this toolkit in a variety of ways to support digital transformation, depending on your organisation's stage on the pathway. You may find it helpful to work through the framework, or prefer to go directly to the maturity model. The roadmap/action plan template can be used alongside either of these documents as the same structure is used for all the materials.

Download this overview document to print out the steps towards digital transformation:

The framework structure allows individuals and teams to quickly see where their areas of responsibility fall and encourages them to focus on specific areas of the framework or maturity model. The scale and size of the framework and maturity model reflect the complexities of HE provider activities. The framework and the maturity model both highlight some aspects that need consideration across all sections such as organisational values around equity, EDI, environmental sustainability, ethics, quality etc.

The framework and maturity model can be approached in sections by different individuals and teams, and the action plan and roadmap template allow a common approach to recording engagement with the maturity model and producing action plans. The template offers a coherent approach that means action plans can be shared/amalgamated (if appropriate) and allows senior leaders to have an immediate understanding of plans, priorities and progress. Leaders can easily see the priorities of different teams and there is a mechanism to adjust these as appropriate when considered at a strategic organisational level. You can use the template to produce an organisation-wide roadmap.

This is a suggested process for organisations to adopt but you can use the various elements of the toolkit and stages of the process to suit your own needs, contexts and approaches.

Assign responsibility for different elements of the framework/maturity model to appropriate teams and individuals. These are the people who will assess maturity levels and work on the action plan/s. Some may have responsibilities or interest in more than one area of the framework, particularly if they have responsibilities that cross over several areas. (For example, a librarian may be involved in producing action plans around learning and teaching, research or collections development. Human resources teams may work on digital wellbeing, digital capabilities and other specific areas that include staff development.)

It is also important at this stage to identify timescales and deadlines for the process – so that action plans for each area are considered and approved by senior leaders at the same time (see sections three and four).

Appropriate board level committees and groups should be identified/created with responsibility for progressing digital transformation across the organisation.

Tips and ideas

• Try to resist the temptation to adopt a silo approach at this stage. Look at each area of the framework/maturity model with fresh eyes and consider which stakeholders have something different to offer: can you involve students, and are there opportunities for cross-faculty working, for example. Try not to appoint only “the usual suspects”.
• You could have teams from different faculties working on the same area, as some will be more digitally mature in specific areas than others. If you adopt this approach, consider how you can bring them together at a later stage and how faculties can learn from each other and share good practice.
• Make sure each team has a senior leader or sponsor involved in some way – this can help with the later stages of organisation-wide prioritisation.
• It could be useful at this stage to carry out a review of stakeholders and map them to different elements of the framework so that no group/s are excluded from planning or engaging with strategies and plans that will affect them.

Assess maturity for each area of the framework using the maturity model for digital transformation in higher education. You could approach this in two ways. It may be of value to assess the maturity level across the activity area for the whole organisation or teams may have been assigned to focus on specific faculty/schools or departments. Ultimately, prioritisation decisions around investment require a whole-organisation picture, so if you decide to focus on specific sections of the organisation you’ll need to amalgamate them or assess them together later.

• Don’t take the levels of maturity as too prescriptive or exhaustive. While they provide a general framework for understanding an organisation's level of digital advancement, they should not be interpreted as a one-size-fits-all solution.
• Don’t focus solely on technology aspects. Underlying cultural and organisational issues are included in the maturity statements to highlight that digital transformation is not just about technology – it's also about people, processes and culture.
• The maturity model offers a ‘big picture’ view for each area for the whole organisation. Conversations held while assessing maturity models are likely to delve into the details, so record or capture this detail in preparation for the next stage (producing action plans and business cases).
• It may be useful to record the evidence you have to reflect your chosen level of maturity (eg recently updated policies, results from surveys, previous investment in systems, project reports).
• Consider each area in relation to organisational values, principles and strategic aims to make sure practice and policies reflect these.
• As part of this process, revisit existing policies and procedures and review them to see if they need updating.

Use the templates to create action plan/s for each area of the framework that need development (use alongside the maturity model document). The suggested template prompts teams to reflect on current maturity levels, to identify actions, KPIs, investment, responsible owners, relevant stakeholders, supporting resources and documents, and assign priority levels. If several action plans are being developed for one area by different teams (eg faculty level) you should also consider producing a business case that highlights benefits against investment. This business case would augment the action plan when senior leaders consider it.

Adjust the template to suit your own requirements (for example, you may want to break down one aspect in the maturity model into smaller components that can reflect different maturity levels, different priorities and/or different stakeholders). Add new rows and copy the drop-down elements so you can assign specific priorities and maturity levels.

• If you decide to create new rows for any aspect of an element it can be helpful to use the same main row number as used in the maturity model and template to enable future mapping. Use secondary numbers to distinguish your new rows (eg 45.1, 45.2) so everyone can tell which original row the entry relates to.
• Consider working with other teams producing action plans for the same areas. The benefits will probably outweigh the challenges (eg developing shared language, sharing existing strengths and good practice, adding weight to business cases, revealing gaps and inconsistencies in practice or processes).
• If you don’t have a senior leader in the team, consider sharing early drafts with one or more to make sure action plans align with strategic aims, visions and organisational values. This could strengthen your plan and business case.
• If you use the action plan template as a shared document members of the group can contribute in an asynchronous way at a time that suits them. This can mitigate some of the challenges of getting cross-organisational groups together. A combination of collaborative asynchronous work and in person meetings/workshops would be a useful approach.
• If you need some prompts to help identify actions consider the examples provided in the framework for digital transformation document .

Senior leaders and governors need to collate and review action plans and business cases to assess and refine strategic priorities, produce an organisation-wide plan/roadmap and allocate investment. This process will be easier for senior leaders if they were involved in producing plans and in the surrounding discussions, as they will have a better understanding of the challenges, benefits and proposed implementation. Timing is a critical factor, as informed decisions are only possible if action plans for each area are submitted around the same time (see step one). This also links to key decision-making committee meetings and schedules.

If the organisation doesn’t already have a strategy for digital transformation the first four steps of this process could inform the development of a specific strategy or the embedding of digital transformation into existing strategies. Some organisations do not produce a specific strategy but focus instead on producing a development/action plan or roadmap. The organisation-wide plan or roadmap should reflect the strategic vision for digital transformation.

You can use the roadmap/action plan template to develop an organisation-wide plan or roadmap after this stage if different teams are producing separate action plans. Leaders need to be able to see the links across the different areas and balance the timing, dependencies and timescales accordingly.

• Senior leaders and governors must be confident and capable digital leaders, so consider this as a high priority (see row three of the maturity model) to ensure the development of a well-informed, organisation-wide strategy and plan.
• Make good use of digital experts/champions – perhaps develop a new group to oversee the development of a digital transformation strategy and an organisation-wide plan.
• Make sure all stakeholders have an opportunity to engage with, understand and feed into strategies and plans. This will support the development of a shared understanding around terminology, organisational value and the impact of changes on their work or learning experience.
• Consider using external experts to help oversee or provide input for the production of an organisation-wide plan as they can offer a fresh perspective, free from existing bias. This can make it easier to balance competing demands.

Adjust the reviewed individual action plans to align with an organisation-wide plan. New priorities and timescales will be assigned and action plan owners will need to be fully informed of strategic and investment priorities. All stakeholders involved in the plan will need to be informed and prepared for the actions identified (and this may require additional training or development).

• This is a good time to work on stakeholder engagement to develop a shared understanding and commitment to the plan/s.
• Look at other action plans that have been approved to find synergies, potential linkages or ways of working together. This may have been picked up during step four, but the team may be more informed and better able to spot these.
• If your proposed action plan has not been approved or has been given a lower priority, work with the team to identify some actions that can be done in advance ready for a later date (eg revise some of the policies, procedures and guidelines, get stakeholders ready by offering training or development opportunities, retain stakeholders’ commitment by addressing easy wins that don’t need a lot of investment). Some of the approved action plans may impact on your priorities going forward, so make sure you continue to review plans (eg investment on digital or physical infrastructure).

Initiate projects, actions and work to implement action plans . Review and adjust the action plans as appropriate during development. Troubleshoot problems as they arise and record and share solutions. Evaluate the process and outcomes against targets identified in the plans.

• Good project management across all action plans can help to align timescales, identify dependencies and highlight emerging problems.
• Using IT-based project management approaches can be problematic for projects that focus more on responsive approaches to stakeholder needs and/or practices. Make sure that appropriate methods are used for each project that don’t only focus on the digital aspects.

Feed back progress on action plans into the organisation-wide roadmap on a regular basis or at the end of the project/initiative. Successes can be shared more widely, particularly if they can inform future plans or other ongoing work. Celebrating success and articulating the benefits can support ongoing stakeholder engagement.

Regularly revisiting and reviewing progress against the organisational digital transformation strategy, roadmap and maturity model allows you to reassess digital maturity and supports identifying new areas for development. Digital transformation strategies and plans should be seen as constantly evolving to reflect external influences and changing organisational practices.

Framework for digital transformation in higher education

The framework for digital transformation in higher education supports the development of a shared understanding of digital transformation across the sector and within HE organisations. It also aims to:

• encourage a holistic approach – identifying patterns and connections across traditional boundaries
• encourage collaborative approaches and build on the collective wisdom of the sector and organisations
• reduce complexity and fragmented processes
• support HE organisations to articulate a strategic vision for digital transformation and develop actionable plans to achieve this
• inform decision making and prioritise investment
• focus on people and practices, not just processes and technology
• highlight leadership and digital capability as critical success factors

We developed this framework with a range of UK professional bodies: Advance HE, Association for Learning Technology (ALT), Association of Higher Education Professionals (AHEP), Association of University Directors of Estates (AUDE), Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), Society of College, National and University Libraries (SCONUL), Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA), Universities UK (UUK) and Vitae.

We did this to ensure the framework reflects sector priorities and links to key UK HE models and frameworks that are already in use.

The framework adopts a knowledge practices approach. In addition to the underlying digital and physical infrastructure and the overarching organisational digital culture, the four core knowledge practices focus on the wide range of activities, experiences and practices of an HE organisation:

• knowledge creation and innovation
• knowledge development
• knowledge management and use
• knowledge exchange and partnerships

This takes the emphasis away from technological or business process approaches and puts the focus on what people do (or need to do) to enhance these practices within the organisation. It also aims to help organisations see patterns, links and synergies across traditional boundaries and encourage all stakeholders to take ownership and engage.

It is important to note that some aspects of, and critical success factors for, digital transformation cut across the whole framework. These include leadership, strategic vision, appropriate investment, equity, diversity and inclusion, environmental sustainability, stakeholder engagement, security and safety, international activities, staff training and development, and digital wellbeing. These are all included within this framework at various points, but relate to specific practices and areas of work for a particular group of staff or other stakeholders.

The framework structure highlights the importance of using information and data intelligently, building on existing collective wisdom. It also emphasises the impact of knowledge creation, innovation and exchange in a global setting through collaborative social and learning networks. You can use the framework to break down various elements of digital transformation activity into achievable goals and actions.

Jisc's framework for digital transformation in higher education is mapped to the Higher Education Business Capability Model V300, part of the Global Higher Education Reference Models (HERM) developed through formalised partnerships between CAUDIT, EUNIS and UCISA Enterprise Architecture (EA) Groups.

Download Jisc framework for digital transformation: mapped to the higher education business capability model (docx) .

Enterprise Architecture Group - in the UK HE and FE sector - UCISA

Organisational digital culture

This is the overarching element of the framework for digital transformation in higher education. The aspects we’ve covered here are critical to a strategic organisation-wide approach to digital transformation.

The values, beliefs and practices affected by the use of digital technology. Empowering digital culture and leadership (strategy, planning and investment), focusing on core strategies, administrative structures and processes, effective governance, stakeholder support, development and engagement. The organisation’s digital culture also determines its approach to issues such as digital safety and wellbeing, openness, collaboration and equity, diversity and inclusion, as well as how well it implements and adapts to organisational change.

Taking this area forward in your own organisation

Assess your digital maturity for organisational digital culture.

Download the maturity model for organisational digital culture (pdf) Download the maturity model for organisational digital culture (docx)

Develop a roadmap and action plans

Download the maturity model action plan for organisational digital culture (docx)

Contact your relationship manager

All Jisc member organisations have a dedicated relationship manager . Yours can help you access our full range of products, services and support.

Inspiration – member stories and case studies

• Bangor University: A data-driven and collaborative digital transformation journey
• CPD isn’t just good business sense, it’s crucial to staff wellbeing
• Digital by design: how Belfast Met are driving digital transformation
• Greenwich’s five steps to digital strategy success
• Sparking a passion for digital skills: a tried and tested approach to developing staff confidence
• What makes a ‘digital leader’?

Organisational digital culture is broken down into four areas of activity:

Digital culture and mindset

Includes the attitudes, behaviours, beliefs and practices that shape people’s relationships with digital technologies and the ways these transform organisational activities. It includes how stakeholders approach innovation, collaboration, information sharing and the creation and consumption of digital content, and how these can enhance their work and learning.

Activities/principles/values

These keywords identify cross-cutting concepts used in both the framework and the maturity model. They occur across the different elements.

Accessibility and inclusion | Business continuity planning | Digital capability | Digital confidence | Digital fluency | Digital innovation | Digital leadership | Digital poverty | Digital strategy | Futures thinking | Governance | Human resources | Organisational values | Stakeholder engagement

Examples of potential activities

• Work with stakeholders to produce a glossary that provides an agreed organisational definition of terminology that reflects the principles and values of the organisation (eg resilience, sustainability, inclusion, graduate attributes, responsible and ethical research and innovation)
• Develop codes of practice for different areas of business activity that articulate clear expectations around digital practices and behaviour
• Encourage staff to identify new digital opportunities to improve their working practices and to feed in suggestions via the appropriate approval routes
• Apply ethical frameworks to ensure staff and learners approve the use of automated notifications
• Review existing job descriptions and person specifications to ensure that digital capabilities relevant to each role are up to date
• Provide opportunities for staff and students to self-assess and reflect on their own digital capabilities and develop individual development plans to enhance the areas they identify as important
• Ensure digital leaders have opportunities to self-assess and reflect on their own digital capabilities and enhance these to model digital confidence to others
• Give senior leaders the opportunity to attend a digital leadership course
• Use the Jisc role profiles to consider and baseline digital capabilities for different groups (eg digital leaders, professional services, teachers, students, library staff, learning technologists, researchers)
• Carry out an organisation-wide audit of manual and digital relationship management systems to develop a coherent and integrated single-source customer relationship management (CRM) system

How Jisc can support your organisation

• Digital leaders programme
• Discover diversity – interactive data dashboard to profile the diversity demographics of staff
• National centre for AI in tertiary education
• Extended reality community of practice
• Innovation projects
• Accessibility and assistive technology communities
• Digital capability community of practice
• Digital experience insights community of practice
• Digital culture and leadership communities
• Digital at the core: a 2030 strategy framework for university leaders
• Digital experience insights Wales: post 16 providers
• Vision and strategy toolkit
• How HR teams support staff digital capability blog and PowerPoint slides (pptx)

Organisational identity

The unique characteristics and qualities that define an organisation and distinguish it from others. Includes digital activities that support the promotion of strategic principles and values, and how these inform business practices and impact on stakeholders.

These keywords identify cross-cutting concepts used in both the framework and the maturity model. They occur across the different elements:

Building digital communities | Business and industry | International activities | Marketing and communications | Sense of belonging

• Promote and encourage a sense of belonging for all stakeholders and provide a mix of on-site and digital opportunities for them to demonstrate presence and engagement
• Encourage students to establish and build professional/career-related digital identities throughout their course
• Supporting learners' digital identity and wellbeing workshop

Organisational wellbeing

Building, supporting and maintaining the physical, emotional and mental health and wellbeing of all stakeholders. Includes the impact of living, working and learning with digital technologies, as well as adopting digital approaches to improve and manage the wellbeing of individuals.

Accessibility and inclusion | Cyber security | Digital fluency | Digital wellbeing | Economic/financial literacy | Employer relations | Environmental sustainability | Flexible workplace | Human resources | Staff recruitment and retention | Staff support

• Engage and involve stakeholders to develop shared guidelines and approaches for the use of digital communications to negotiate, argue respectfully, and deal with and respect difference
• Develop accessibility and inclusion policies, practices, support and guidelines to ensure that all stakeholders have equitable experiences of work and learning
• Make sure accessibility, inclusion and wellbeing challenges and problems are addressed as a high priority
• Provide staff with digital tools, apps or services to manage their wellbeing (eg time management, workload prioritisation, screen time) and encourage their use
• Investigate the ethical use of digital nudges (automated notifications) to monitor wellbeing of staff and/or students
• Offer remote/hybrid working for appropriate roles to improve recruitment and retention of skilled staff
• Encourage engagement, reconfigure tasks and events to fit a digital format, and address mental health and equity issues
• Upgrade or reconfigure workspaces to support a flexible, hybrid work culture (eg upgraded classrooms, conference rooms, shared workspaces)
• Digital wellbeing for you, your colleagues and students': briefing paper for practitioners (pdf)
• Good practice principles to support the digital wellbeing of your students and staff: briefing paper for senior leaders (pdf)
• Student and staff wellbeing in higher education
• Code of practice for wellbeing and mental health analytics
• Digital wellbeing of learners
• Inclusive digital practice and digital wellbeing
• Online safety

Organisational change

Anticipating, managing and responding to the impact of digital transformation activities. Supporting stakeholders to adapt practices, expectations and attitudes through planned initiatives and activities.

Baselining | Corporate strategy | Digital innovation | Digital leadership | Digital strategy | Foresight | Governance | Investment | Operational change

• Ensure senior leaders are clear about their roles as digital leaders and confident to model good digital practice and innovative approaches to others
• Carry out a review of roles and remits of existing senior management groups/committees in light of development plans, to clarify group responsibilities and identify any gaps in coverage
• Provide time and space for staff to benefit from digital transformations and ensure recognition and sharing of good practice

Knowledge creation and innovation

One of the core knowledge practice areas in the framework for digital transformation in higher education.

Analysing emerging trends and developments across all areas of the organisation’s business to inform policy and development. Enhancing knowledge creation and innovation through research and collaborative activities. Considering the wider impact on local, regional, national or international communities.

Assess your digital maturity for knowledge creation and innovation

Download the maturity model for knowledge creation and innovation (pdf) Download the maturity model for knowledge creation and innovation (docx)

Download the maturity model action plan for knowledge creation and innovation (docx)

• Simmersive Staffordshire: bringing together people, place and pedagogy for practising clinical skills
• Cardiff University’s multi-disciplinary approach to teaching in clinical disciplines with immersive technology
• Digital archives power future research
• Powering discoveries that benefit humankind

Knowledge creation and innovation is broken down into four areas of activity:

Digital vision and horizon scanning

Looking ahead to anticipate and prepare for the impact of current and future digital trends on the sector and on organisational priorities and activities. Enabling senior leaders to gather foresight to inform strategic planning and decision making.

Benchmarking | Digital creativity | Digital leadership | Digital vision | Foresight | Futures thinking | Horizon scanning | International activities | Industry trends | Strategic planning | Sector trends

• Develop a series of visioning workshops for senior leaders
• Encourage leaders and governors to be aware of digital transformations in industry, research and development, education and business sectors, and consider how to incorporate appropriate new practices and approaches into the organisation (e.g. curriculum development, knowledge practices)
• Create a futures-thinking or foresight framework for the organisation that supports policy decision making
• Vision for change workshop
• UK higher education (HE) digital experience insights

Providing a robust infrastructure to support research. Includes strategic approaches, appropriate investment in digital systems, environments, processes and technologies, and attracting, enabling, developing and supporting researchers.

These keywords identify cross-cutting concepts used in both the framework and the maturity mode. They occur across the different elements:

Building digital communities | Digital strategy | Ethics | International activities | Library and learning resources | Open research | Research collaboration | Research management and support | Research skills development and training | Research support

• Enable interdisciplinary approaches to research through digitally -connected communities
• Provide access to appropriate scale and type of research infrastructure
• Identify routes to access appropriate technologies (e.g. high-performance computing) within or outside the organisation to support high complexity/high capacity research
• Provide adequate, well-managed research data storage
• Provide secure access to open research data management infrastructure and policies to support clear research data lifecycle provision, including preservation and disposal
• Ensure that effective content management systems are developed, used and maintained to support storage, retrieval and access to research and enterprise outputs, including internal and external digital repositories
• Identify routes to managing physical research assets and equipment digitally to support a sustainable research estate
• Identify routes for researchers to access research software and data-engineering services where appropriate
• Offer research software engineering services to researchers to develop and improve code for specific research projects
• Reduce bureaucracy and administrative burdens on researchers by streamlining and simplifying the research management process
• Ensure that effective and interoperable research management processes, systems and technology are available and well managed
• Jisc research: providing essential infrastructure to power your research
• Knowledge Base+
• International education and research
• Research communities
• Optimising the UK’s university research infrastructure assets: perspectives and opportunities
• Publishing in transformative journals to make your research openly available
• Researcher digital experience insights survey 2021/22: UK higher education (HE) survey findings (published February 2023) (docx)
• Working with transitional agreements: Guidelines for evaluating and communicating transitional open access (OA) agreements
• Research data management toolkit

Supporting the development of new ideas and solutions by encouraging creativity, enterprise and supporting digital leadership. Aligning appropriate innovation with strategic aspirations, existing practice, legacy systems and processes.

Community collaboration | Digital creativity | Digital leadership | Digital strategy

• Enable recognition, recruitment, development and retention of creative digital practitioners in professional roles
• Encourage and support staff to take calculated risks and experiment with technologies
• Develop a ring-fenced innovation budget to support initial development of ideas
• Provide opportunities for students to be involved as partners in research-informed digital innovation
• Create new events, awards, initiatives and funding streams to support digital creativity
• Support centres of excellence in digital fields and leverage their expertise within the organisation
• Enable an enterprise culture and support initiatives that contribute to the wider community; build entrepreneurship skills in students
• Innovation in higher education

Wider impact

Ensuring research and innovation projects are analysed for their impact, and appropriately disseminated to different audiences.

Building digital communities | International activities | Local community | Local/regional/national/ impact | Marketing and communications

• Ensure staff and students have the appropriate technologies, support and training to produce digital content for different audiences
• Maintain efficient marketing communications channels to ensure that organisational outputs and key messages are effectively managed, stored, branded, and disseminated

Knowledge development

Supporting knowledge development within the organisation to ensure all stakeholders can learn, work and thrive in a digital environment. Rethinking and enhancing digital learning, teaching and assessment.

Assess your digital maturity for knowledge development

Download the maturity model for knowledge development (pdf) Download the maturity model for knowledge development (docx)

Download the maturity model action plan for knowledge development (docx)

• A Teesside University and Jisc collaboration is at the heart of a digital learning toolkit
• Adaptability, data and digital poverty: digital assessment at Brunel University
• Creating library vibes for students studying remotely
• Delivering a digital education
• How UCL is redesigning assessment for the AI age
• “Learning analytics is about hearts and minds, as well as technology”

Knowledge development is broken down into four areas of activity:

Curriculum development

Reviewing, planning and developing a course of study. Usually a formal departmental and institutional process, mapped to graduate outcomes, benchmarks and professional standards, producing specific documentation (e.g. course handbook, schedule, VLE materials).

Assessment and feedback | Curriculum design | Curriculum frameworks | Digital capability | Digital strategy | International activities | Learning design | Learning models | Learning resources | Learning teaching and assessment strategy | Validation

• Work to transform and develop courses across the organisation according to changing strategic visions, employer needs, and/or frameworks such as active blended learning, personalised learning, hybrid learning, and transdisciplinary learning
• Reconsider and redesign traditional assessment and feedback to realise the affordances of digital approaches, ensuring staff and students have the required digital capabilities
• Explore economic models for offering blended learning at scale
• Identify and implement new international programmes of study
• Consider new global markets for popular courses in light of increased digital learning capacity and staff capability
• Explore how digital and physical spaces are being/could be used to provide enhanced opportunities for student flexibility and engagement
• Developing learners’ employability skills
• Learning analytics
• Digital capability in the curriculum
• Early career learning technologists community – member driven
• Assessment and feedback - higher education landscape review: survey outcomes
• Beyond blended
• Approaches to learning and curriculum design across UK higher education
• Blended learning: a synthesis of change A study based on contributions from universities in Wales, in light of Covid-19 (pdf)
• Learning and teaching reimagined: a new dawn for higher education?
• Technology-enabled teaching and learning at scale
• The future of assessment five principles, five targets for 2025
• Digital experience insights Wales: post-16 providers
• Blended learning in higher education
• Digital pedagogy toolkit
• Developing blended learning approaches
• Employability toolkit
• Reimagining innovation in higher education
• Principles of good assessment and feedback

Digital learning

Learning that takes place through digital devices, media and environments, or with digital applications. Digital learning may take place live and in -person, live online, or through asynchronous resources and environments. Includes digital learning and development of staff, as well as formal or informal learning of students.

Accessibility and inclusion | Digital capability | Digital poverty | Effective digital learners | E-portfolios | Flexible learning | Flexible workplace | Learning spaces | Library and learning resources | Personalised learning | Self regulation | Staff development | Staff recruitment and retention | Student choice | Student learning | Student progression | Student support | Study spaces

• Use a balance of in -person and digital methods to provide timely and appropriate feedback throughout a course to allow students to self-regulate their learning
• Encourage and support learners to self-assess, identify and articulate their digital and study preferences and needs through a mixture of in person and digital diagnostic methods
• Offer learners regular opportunities to assess their digital learning capabilities and identify what support they need to build on these
• Provide learners with appropriate digital tools and encouragement/support to reflect on their learning (eg e-portfolios, personal blogs)
• Provide opportunities for curriculum teams to assess and reflect on their levels of digital capability and identify areas for professional development opportunities for student flexibility and engagement
• Building digital capability discovery tool
• Building digital capability discovery tool staff guide
• Building digital capability discovery tool student guide
• CPD accredited events
• Digital learning rebooted: from fixes to foresight
• Getting started with e-portfolios

Digital teaching

Teaching through digital devices, media and environments, or with digital applications. Digital teaching may take place live and in person, live online or by supporting students with a variety of asynchronous resources and environments. Also supporting students with their digital learning skills.

Assessment and feedback | Digital capability | Data analytics | Learning environments | Learning infrastructure | Learning technologists | Learning resources | Library and learning resources | Open educational practice (OEP) | Open educational resources (OERs) | Staff development | Student support

• Establish a set of metrics and analytics that can be used to measure the success of digital learning beyond simplistic data such as attendance and retention
• Invest in self-access resources to support the development of digital capabilities among staff
• Explore or research the use of AI to provide a personalised learning experience that identifies and responds to the needs and preferences of learners
• Provide opportunities for teaching staff to share digital practices and expertise formally and informally
• Ensure there is recognition and reward for teaching staff who develop their digital capabilities (e.g. appraisal, grading, time allocation, career opportunities, specialist roles, link to teaching excellence)
• Redesign the management and delivery of assessment and feedback mechanisms
• Leverage technologies to scale delivery of high-quality services to students located anywhere in the world
• Adapt quality improvement processes to support the adoption of digital approaches to learning, teaching and assessment
• Work with stakeholders to identify barriers to the adoption of technologies related to blended/hybrid learning and find ways to deal with this equitably (eg cameras on/ off for remote students, environmental impact of digital interactions)
• Identify alternative means to support knowledge practice for people who are unable to access in person spaces or equipment (eg games, simulations)
• Work with other HEIs as consortia to advocate with publishers for increased availability and affordability of e-books
• Jisc Change Agents Network
• A pathway towards responsible, ethical AI
• Artificial intelligence (AI) in tertiary education: A primer on what AI can do, what the future holds, and what to consider in order to implement it ethically
• Teaching staff digital experience insights survey 2021/22: UK HE findings
• Virtual learning environment review report
• Applying the SAMR model to aid your digital transformation
• Benefits and considerations of smart campuses
• Code of practice for learning analytics
• Digital assessment in higher education
• Digital teaching in higher education
• Legal considerations for recording lectures

Learner experience

The subjective experience of learning overall, including the taught curriculum and non-curricular activities such as private study, learning skills support, library resources, careers support and informal collaborative learning. Also includes aspects of emotional and personal wellbeing.

Activities / principles / values

Accessibility and inclusion | Building digital communities | Digital fluency | Digital participation | Digital wellbeing | International activities | Sense of belonging | Student experience | Student support

• Embrace the notion of presence (for staff and students), which can be demonstrated synchronously or asynchronously, as an alternative to contact hours
• Include students’ digital wellbeing in wider student wellbeing initiatives and services
• Take an active interest in the digital experience of learners through research, surveys and/or consultations
• Use technology to provide personalised, adaptive learning and assessment
• Provide effective careers support, employment brokering and employment-based skills development, through a balance of technological and in person approaches
• Survey students about their access to technology, connectivity and learning spaces before they start their course to find out what additional support they might need
• Ensure that international and transnational education (TNE) students have the support they need to experience a sense of belonging and to learn effectively
• Consider students’ global mobility and the impact this might have on access to services, learning and support
• Digital wellbeing e-learning module
• Student experience
• Supporting learners’ digital identity and wellbeing (training)
• International students’ digital experience phase one: a review of policy, academic literature and views from UK higher education
• Learner digital experience insights survey 2021/22 UK higher education (HE) findings 2021-22
• Reimagining student experience in higher education

Knowledge management and use

Enhancing access to, and use of, information and data to support all areas of the organisation, including research and teaching. Enabling the collation, preservation, management, sharing and use of information and data to inform decision making.

Assess your digital maturity for knowledge management and use

Download the maturity model for knowledge management and use (pdf) Download the maturity model for knowledge management and use (docx)

Download the maturity model action plan for knowledge management and use (docx )

• How big data could vaccinate the world
• King’s College London: “Digitising collections opens up whole new areas for research”
• St George’s, University of London: keeping up with digital archives
• The Engineering Professors’ Council: Using data to inform and shape the future of engineering
• University of Liverpool: “Democratising knowledge”
• University of South Wales: “Learning analytics is helping us improve the student experience”

Knowledge management and use is broken down into four areas of activity:

Information management and use

Practices and procedures around collecting, organising, storing and sharing information in a way that allows for efficient retrieval and use. This includes information created by the organisation and that provided by third parties.

Collection management | Digital information | Digital media | Digital preservation | Information literacy | Information strategy | Information storage and retrieval | Library and learning resources | Management information | Study spaces

• Use digital information to support effective organisational planning and decision making, problem solving, and monitoring of organisational performance
• Ensure staff and students can critically evaluate digital information in terms of its accuracy, provenance, relevance, value and credibility
• Produce guidelines on copyright, data protection, information security, open licensing, and intellectual property rights (IPR) so staff and students are fully informed around legal requirements and organisational principles
• Investigate the use of AI in the provision of information/library services
• Identify responsibility for the archiving of the organisation
• Libraries, learning resources and research
• Working with transitional agreements
• Intellectual property rights in a digital world
• Making your digital collections easier to discover

Data management and use

Practices and procedures around collecting, organising, storing and sharing data in a way that allows for efficient analysis and use that supports a data-enabled organisation. This includes ethical use, quality, governance, standards, security and compliance around all forms of data.

Business processes and operations | Compliance | Cyber security | Data architecture | Data analytics | Data ethics | Data literacy | Data privacy | Data quality | Data strategy | Enterprise architecture | Ethics | Security and business continuity

• Review existing policies and practices to reform and upgrade data management practices, systems and services
• Engage with stakeholders to understand and critique the role of data in the organisation and more widely in society
• Share data openly (where this does not conflict with data privacy and security) for societal learning and scholarship
• Identify all sources of data across the organisation to support a better understanding of the learner experience and to use this to improve learner outcomes (e.g. use of library resources, engagement with the VLE etc.)
• Data analytics
• Data consultancy
• Heidi Plus new user clinics and Heidi Plus masterclasses
• Learning analytics discovery and consultancy
• Data protection
• Senior managers' guide to learning analytics
• Data maturity framework

Business intelligence (BI)

The collection, management and use of data and information to inform business decisions and strategies. It comprises the strategies and technologies used by enterprises for data analysis and management of business information.

Baselining | Benchmarking | BI strategy | Business continuity planning | Digital leadership | Digital strategy | Ethical systems and processes | Forecasting | Horizon scanning | Management information | Market intelligence | Openness and transparency

• Gather market intelligence to benchmark the organisational position (e.g. research performance)
• Ensure leaders and governors are aware of digital transformations in industry, education and business sectors and support new practices and approaches into the organisation as appropriate (e.g. curriculum development, knowledge practices)
• Consider how information is used internally and highlight this (e.g. local labour market intelligence to identify career opportunities for students, student admissions trends to consider future size and shape)
• Gain consensus on priorities for reporting ­­– what information is essential for decision making and who should provide it?
• Provide access to appropriate user-defined data dashboards for people in different roles across the organisation
• Create a roadmap for implementing business intelligence services, considering interim measures where needed
• Prioritise the collection of data needed to achieve goals (e.g. attendance monitoring in place for learning analytics)
• Data and business intelligence
• Digital experience insights

Decision making

Evaluating evidence and business intelligence to identify options and make choices about all aspects of business, including investment and planning to achieve strategic goals.

These keywords identify cross-cutting concepts in both the framework and the maturity model. They occur across the different elements:

Digital confidence | Digital evidence | Digital fluency | Digital leadership | Digital vision | Problem solving

• Understand business processes in different contexts across the organisation and how digital enables and constrains these (e.g. education, research, support)
• Give governors and senior leaders access to information and data that supports decision making and planning
• Interactive insights

Knowledge exchange and partnerships

Enhancing knowledge exchange to communicate and disseminate key organisational messages, and encourage collaboration and community participation of all partners/stakeholders.

Assess your digital maturity for knowledge exchange and partnerships

Download the maturity model for knowledge exchange and partnerships (pdf) Download the maturity model for knowledge exchange and partnerships (docx)

Download the maturity model action plan for knowledge exchange and partnerships (docx)

• A trusted, reliable resource in a transforming world
• The Turing Way forward

Knowledge exchange and partnerships is broken down into four areas of activity:

Communication

How the organisation uses digital technology and networks to enhance and support communication between stakeholders, as well as disseminating key messages outside the organisation.

Accessibility and inclusion | Digital communication | Digital etiquette | Digital media | Digital networks | Marketing and communications | Organisational communication | Social networking

• Work with stakeholders to create digital communication guidelines that are inclusive (eg codes of conduct, email etiquette, managing online behaviour)
• Establish a culture of zero tolerance for online harassment and bullying
• Work with stakeholders to consider how different digital formats and messages achieve different purposes, and how far digital media and networks influence social behaviour
• Develop guidelines for online synchronous and asynchronous communication approaches to ensure all stakeholders enjoy a consistent, fair experience
• Celebrating the power of community in education and research
• Networking, computers and the law

Collaboration

How the organisation uses digital technology to help stakeholders work with others to achieve specific goals. This includes supportive, secure and inclusive working and learning practices.

Accessibility and inclusion | Community collaboration | Digital collaboration | International activities | Open sharing | Staff collaboration | Student collaboration

• Ensure that systems and procedures for safe and secure data sharing support collaborative activities across the organisation
• Work with stakeholders to create rules and guidelines for effective and inclusive digital collaboration inside and outside the organisation
• Consider how to work with TNE partners to share systems and technologies and identify potential challenges and risks
• Digital research community group
• The future of employer-university collaboration — a vision for 2030

Community participation

Encouraging stakeholders to engage with, and participate in, decision-making processes that affect them. Enabling and supporting stakeholders to participate in wider community activities. Ensuring equitable and inclusive experiences of digital participation.

Accessibility and inclusion | Building digital communities | Community collaboration | Digital participation | Local community | Regional growth | Sense of belonging

• Contribute towards local and regional industry and business to drive innovation and economic growth
• Link with cultural and social initiatives in the local community or region to enrich the experience of staff and students and encourage social and environmental change
• Get involved: engage with your peers
• Community champions

News features

Relationship management

Using digital technologies to build and maintain positive relationships with and between stakeholders to ensure engagement, feedback and involvement as partners. Includes working, learning and wider community relationships.

Business and industry | Customer relations | Employer relations | External relations | Human resources | International activities | Local community | Partnerships | Stakeholder engagement

• Enable and encourage students to develop and build relationships with potential local, regional, national and international employers
• Develop and maintain strong and lasting relationships with alumni
• The power of student partnerships in digital transformation

Digital and physical infrastructure

The underpinning element of the framework for digital transformation in higher education. The aspects included here are critical to the infrastructure needed to support digital transformation.

Providing robust and secure infrastructure through relevant expertise and vision, including appropriate investment in networks, systems, hardware, software and digitally equipped physical spaces, and ensuring effective management and standards compliance.

Assess your digital maturity for digital and physical infrastructure

Download the maturity model for digital and physical infrastructure (pdf) Download the maturity model for digital and physical infrastructure (docx)

Developing a roadmap and plan of action planning

Download the maturity model action plan for digital and physical infrastructure (docx)

• Cardiff Metropolitan University: emerging stronger from cyber-attack
• Cloud thinking
• Cloud with clarity at Goldsmiths
• Coleg Y Cymoedd: Cyber security assessment

Digital and physical infrastructure is broken down into four areas of activity:

Robust digital infrastructure

Planning, investing and maintaining a comprehensive, secure and reliable system of technology and equipment that supports the efficient operation and growth of an organisation.

These keywords identify cross-cutting concept used in both the framework and the maturity model. They occur across the different elements:

Accessibility and inclusion | Application architecture | Business continuity planning | Business processes and operations | Corporate strategy | Cyber security | Data architecture | Data creation and management | Data privacy | Digital leadership | Digital poverty | Digital strategy | Enterprise architecture | Environmental sustainability | Governance | Horizon scanning | International activities | Investment | IT strategy | Local/regional/national contexts and intelligence | Requirements gathering | Sector intelligence | Security and business continuity | Stakeholder engagement | Sustainability

• Establish horizon scanning activities that enable all stakeholder groups to participate and contribute
• Carry out regular review audits to map dataflows, workflows and processes across different functions to inform digital strategy
• Ensure digital planning is coordinated with other relevant plans and strategies (eg estates, learning, teaching and assessment, student experience, research, information and communication, international, IT, corporate plan)
• Develop a cross-organisational steering group to take digital strategies and plans forward
• Implement strategic digital visions as appropriate through digital leadership and effective governance (e.g. cloud first, mobile first, digital first, people first, sustainability)
• Balance investment and effort to refresh, consolidate and/or integrate existing/legacy systems and services and develop new ones as appropriate
• Plan for changing investment and procurement in the switch from majority capital expenditure to majority revenue expenditure (e.g. move to cloud services)
• Plan for a balanced investment between fixed computing and resources/facilities for personal device use (e.g. under a bring-your-own or leasing policy)
• Coordinate software purchasing, licensing and access across diverse parts of the organisation to maximise efficiency and availability and minimise risk
• Ensure digital infrastructure planning and decisions take account of the diverse needs of staff and students, particularly those at risk of exclusion through issues such as poverty, disability, mental health, physical location, language, or any other access difficulties
• Ensure that digital infrastructure decisions and activities do not create barriers to participation, working or learning
• Ensure digital infrastructure planning and decisions are considered against organisational targets for environmental sustainability (e.g. energy use, carbon footprint, net zero)
• Ensure that virtual environments reflect and are representative of diversity in the real world
• Provide opportunities for all stakeholders to proactively engage in the design of the digital environment
• Provide and maintain secure systems, services and content (e.g. cyber security protections and protocols)
• Establish an incremental plan, targets and a roadmap to implement and/or integrate new systems, platforms, or applications to ensure minimum disruption to established business activities
• Develop and support systems and services that enable effective and ethical collection and use of high-quality, secure data (e.g. business intelligence architecture, data centres, data dashboards, high performance computing (HPC), data visualisation) and procedures
• Technology Foresight
• Cloud professional services
• Road to Cyber Essentials (blog series)
• Critical services protection
• Joining the bits (infrastructure team blog series)
• Assistive technology network
• Meeting accessibility regulations: practical resources and advice to help you understand and implement government legislation
• Accesibility and assistive technology communities
• Scaling education: What is the carbon impact?
• Framework for digital transformation
• Practical steps to meeting accessibility regulations
• Exploring digital carbon footprints

Digital connectivity

Ensuring secure and reliable connections between stakeholders, business processes and data and networks within the organisation, as well as facilitating connectivity with appropriate external networks.

Accessibility and inclusion | Business continuity planning | Building digital communities | Cyber security | Digital poverty | Digital networks | Security and business continuity

• Establish organisational guidelines for the impact of digital connectivity on the environment; suggest ways to mitigate this through changing practice (e.g. ways to address the carbon footprint of sending and storing emails)
• Carry out ongoing monitoring of network usage, performance and capacity, and highlight aspects that present current or future challenges (e.g. e-sports, e-science)
• Ensure websites, digital services and apps provided through the organisation are accessible across multiple platforms/devices and comply with accessibility standards and regulations
• Ensure no one is disadvantaged by accessing outdated, less secure services and systems
• Consider the challenges, technical impacts and potential restrictions of global interconnectivity
• Establish appropriate plans and policies that specifically focus on data privacy and ethics, and cyber security issues that are unique to work-from-home environments
• Expand, upgrade and adopt digital security measures such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), password tools, threat detection, monitoring, ransomware protection software and endpoint and wifi security
• Work to achieve ISO 270001 certification to manage information security
• Work with and access specialist services to support incident response, forensics and the recovery of organisational digital estates, to mitigate the impact of attacks
• Access appropriate services to support cyber security activities (e.g. Cyber Essentials), and participate in events and activities to support threat intelligence sharing
• Connectivity
• Cyber security: building solid cyber practice and culture together
• Cyber Security Portal
• IT support staff retention (blog post)
• Cyber security community group
• Aligning cloud connectivity with your cloud strategy

Digital support

Resources, services and assistance provided to help stakeholders use digital technologies effectively for work, learning or research.

Digital champions | Digital capability | Digital learning champions | Learning technologists | Staff support | Student support

• Manage roll-out and training for new digital systems and major updates
• Establish a shared understanding of the differences between IT support and supporting a range of different digital practices (eg digital learning, digital research, data analytics)
• IT support staff retention

Estates management

Planning, development, administration and maintenance of physical estates that are financially and environmentally sustainable, with buildings that are fit for purpose. Ensuring that physical and virtual infrastructure integrate efficiently and effectively to deliver strategic objectives.

Digital strategy | Environmental sustainability | Estates strategy | Intelligent campus | IT strategy | Learning environments | Learning spaces | Library and learning resources | Study spaces

• Carry out a full audit of teaching rooms, their purpose or configurability and the equipment in them – including rooms with specialist facilities
• Streamline systems across the organisation to facilitate room and equipment booking and measure room use to ensure physical spaces support current practice
• Use data from intelligent environments to identify traffic and use of campus spaces to support ongoing improvement and development
• Provide virtual tours for people who cannot access physical spaces
• Provide a variety of bookable hybrid and virtual spaces
• Include the effective pedagogical use of learning spaces and equipment in the plan for developing digital capability of teaching staff and provide training materials and support for staff and students who use the spaces
• Consider furniture, room layout, technology use and pedagogical approaches in different learning spaces to ensure flexible options are available. Consider limitations that may impact on learning and teaching in a blended/hybrid context
• Assess the level of technical support required to maintain (and keep current) the large number of technology-equipped rooms. Ensure that a sufficient and appropriate mix of technical, administrative and teaching support is available
• First steps towards a smarter campus and healthier buildings
• Building the future intelligent campus: using data to make smarter use of your university estate

Maturity model for digital transformation in higher education

The maturity model for digital transformation provides a structure to help UK HE providers assess their digital maturity across all aspects of business. The structure aligns with the Jisc framework for digital transformation.

When identifying digital maturity HE providers need to benchmark themselves against the sector, as well as set their own baseline from which to move forward. Defining digital maturity is an important step in producing a digital transformation strategy and creating actionable plans.

The model provides a common language for HE providers to discuss digital transformation and share best practices across the organisation and the sector.

Maturity levels

The model consists of three levels of digital maturity. They can be assessed against each aspect of activity identified in the framework. The model provides a description of each level for all areas of the framework to illustrate the benefits and outcomes of progressing through the levels. The description is also intended to help organisations identify their own levels.

• Lack of strategic digital leadership
• Short-term investment
• Unintegrated systems and operations
• Lack of innovation
• Lack of widespread stakeholder understanding and engagement
• Dispersed, project-based digital activities
• Developing a proactive strategic approach
• Enabling effective digital leadership
• Making efforts to integrate systems and operations
• Engaging and upskilling all stakeholders
• Moving towards service delivery model
• Comprehensive and integrated strategic approaches
• Effective digital leadership
• Long-term and adaptable planning and investment
• Integrated, efficient systems and operations
• Engaged, informed and appropriately skilled stakeholders
• Partnership approaches to innovation
• Longer term service delivery model approach (less project based)

Using the maturity model

We have segmented the model down into the six element headings of the framework to help organisations break down the task. However, it is important to note that, because many aspects occur across the different elements, senior leaders need an overview of maturity levels across the whole organisation.

The model is a practical document that will evolve into a specific record of your organisation's maturity levels and progress. We offer it as a series of word templates so you can customise it fully to reflect your organisation's baseline state. It uses drop-down lists that prompt you to identify the maturity level for each area and also asks you to identify your progress for that area as follows:

• Not started/not planned
• Not started/planned
• Nearly there
• Done – ongoing review

Download a pdf or Word version of the maturity model, which you can use and adapt to assess your own digital maturity and identify your progress towards achieving maturity for each area.

Download the maturity model for digital transformation (pdf) Download the maturity model for digital transformation (docx) Download the maturity model for organisational digital culture (pdf) Download the maturity model for organisational digital culture (docx) Download the maturity model for knowledge creation and innovation (pdf) Download the maturity model for knowledge creation and innovation (docx) Download the maturity model for knowledge development (pdf) Download the maturity model for knowledge development (docx) Download the maturity model for knowledge management and use (pdf) Download the maturity model for knowledge management and use (docx) Download the maturity model for knowledge exchange and partnerships (pdf) Download the maturity model for knowledge exchange and partnerships (docx) Download the maturity model for digital and physical infrastructure (pdf) Download the maturity model for digital and physical infrastructure (docx)

Complementary maturity models

Our maturity model covers the whole business of an HE provider. We know that other maturity models can inform specific aspects of work, like data or enterprise architecture and we have developed a reference guide of other maturity models that might be used already, or may be helpful to focus on specific areas in more detail. We have also highlighted non-UK initiatives in this area.

Download maturity model mapping to complementary models (docx) Download maturity model mapping to complementary models (pdf)

Developing a roadmap to success

There comes a point in the digital transformation process when you need to translate your vision into practical plans. An organisation-wide roadmap can provide an overview of how the organisation intends to turn the strategic vision into reality and give clear outlines of how the plan affects different departments, teams and practices. It can articulate the timelines, investment and measures of success. At the other end of the scale, more specific action plans can focus on particular areas, departments or initiatives to capture the detail, ownership and progress towards goals.

The process of creating roadmaps or action plans can inform or feed into the development of a digital transformation strategy or help with reviewing and adjusting an existing strategy. It can also be used to consider digital aspects of all existing organisational strategies.

Action plan template

We offer a series of practical templates for organisations to produce detailed actionable plans to enhance their digital maturity. The templates prompt organisations to reflect on current maturity levels, to identify actions, KPIs, investment, responsible owners, relevant stakeholders, supporting resources and documents and assign priority levels. Each template is a companion document to both the framework and the maturity model and is structured in the same way. It can be used at organisation-wide level to produce a roadmap and/or at faculty/school/department level to produce action plans.

The template is best used as a collaborative online document that reflects your specific plans and context. It can be broken down and adapted as appropriate for each organisation. The table includes blank spaces to be completed as an action plan is developed.

It uses drop-down lists to record maturity level, progress and priority (which links to drop-down lists proposed in the maturity model document). The second column includes original elements from the framework for digital transformation and the numbering of rows directly correlates to the rows in the maturity model.

Download the maturity model action plan and roadmap (docx) Download the maturity model action plan for organisational digital culture (docx) Download the maturity model action plan for knowledge creation and innovation (docx) Download the maturity model action plan for knowledge development (docx) Download the maturity model action plan for knowledge management and use (docx) Download the maturity model action plan for knowledge exchange and partnerships (docx) Download the maturity model action plan for digital and physical infrastructure (docx)

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Evolution of the Higher Ed Business Model

Dec 03, 2020 • 4 minute read • ross lucivero, evp, product.

Cultural and technological changes have been disrupting the higher education business model for at least a decade. Online learning and education-on-demand were already encroaching on the traditional classroom experience, but at a pace educators and administrators felt they could control.

COVID-19 has changed all that. Closed campuses, remote learning, faculty furloughs, and declining enrollment are forcing fast-paced changes that will transform higher education for years to come. It’s possible—if not probable—that many changes are here for good, regardless of the ebb and flow of coronavirus. These are the most notable trends in the higher education business model for 2020 and beyond.

Technology-Supported Remote Monitoring and Proctoring

Pre-COVID, the online education market was expected to reach $350 billion by 2025 , accounting for about a third of all higher education dollars. That figure will undoubtedly rise significantly, given that about 45% of all colleges and universities are operating primarily online this year compared to only 23% operating primarily in person.

The huge surge in online education is accompanied by a growing need to monitor remote test-taking. Technology has emerged to offer new proctoring solutions that ensure fairness and integrity in the examination process while delivering real cost savings for institutions.

One such solution uses facial recognition and biometric keystroke technology to ensure the person taking the exam matches the student’s ID. Examity, an India-based company, offers real-time video monitoring technology that detects unusual movements by the test-taker during an exam. ProctorTrack is a hybrid model combining machine learning and biometric monitoring to ensure students’ identities.

Learning Analytics

In the past, educators were limited to attendance and test results to track their students’ progress. Now, however, technology has opened the door to a wide array of metrics including engagement with online lessons and discussion groups, online self-assessments, and even time spent with digital resources or in-person at the library.

Proponents of data gathering for learning analytics say the information helps them more quickly identify struggling students and provide targeted assistance. Nottingham Trent University in England gives students access to a personal dashboard that lets them compare their performance across several metrics against their peers. Educators believe this gives students more control over their studies. Other universities are using student data to help shape curriculum and teaching methods.

Opponents, however, point to the obvious ethical concerns with this type of personal data collection and retention. Institutions that utilize analytics must recognize the need for strong data governance policies before jumping on the artificial intelligence bandwagon.

Personalized Educational Content

Along with learning analytics, AI is creating new opportunities for personalized academic content in the form of live-stream and on-demand videos. A 2018 study showed that 90% of incoming freshmen expected on-demand educational content.

The goal of personalized content is a Netflix-style experience where algorithms suggest targeted video content based on students’ interest and engagement with other content. AI-driven personalized academic content is widely considered a core capability to meet the needs of current and future students who are increasingly video-centric in their learning preferences.

Within the coming two years, 22% of university leaders say they plan to implement AI-driven adaptive learning software; 20% say they will use the technology to create academic playlists of lectures.

Mobile Learning

It’s not surprising that the mobile learning market is growing in tandem with the overall trend toward remote and on-demand education. Pre-COVID, experts projected the mobile learning market would grow 36% year-over-year and reach nearly $40 billion by the end of 2020.

Far from being a classroom distraction, mobile devices can actually increase engagement and retention of key concepts. Middlesex University gave first-year anatomy students access to a mobile app with 3D anatomic models and interactive learning activities. Students who used the app on their iPad during class demonstrated more overall engagement with the material and earned higher grades than students who did not use the app on their mobile devices.

Beyond supplementing core classroom educational activities, mobile learning is a way to help students incorporate learning into their lives. Colorado Technical University, for example, uses an app to help students access relevant support services, get real-time notifications about deadlines, due dates, and scheduling, and improve their time management skills.

Data Privacy and Security

Personal data is the fuel that drives these digital transformations in higher education. While all institutions are obligated to comply with FERPA and other regulations governing student data, the expanded scope of data collection opens up new ethical questions, as well.

The challenge for administrators is balancing the need for data mining to power the personalized, on-demand educational experience today’s students demand with their legal and ethical obligations for data privacy and security. It’s perhaps not surprising that privacy officer is one of the fastest-growing positions in higher education.

Beyond developing strict data governance policies, institutions are turning to technology to promote data security. Some are using blockchain to ensure the integrity of student records while others are relying on cloud-based systems that offer more security over on-premise solutions. Most are expanding their data policies to include strict screening of third-party vendors for compliance.

Bottom Line

COVID has accelerated the democratization of education and the push for on-demand learning. The days of education delivered exclusively in the laboratory or lecture hall are over, and along with it, the one-size-fits-all model of learning.

The technologies powering the new face of higher learning are not without their risks, however. Remote monitoring, data mining, learning analytics, and mobile technologies play an important role in higher ed’s new business model, but they must be implemented responsibly with intentional policies for privacy and security.

Ultimately, however, the institutions that get it right will be well-positioned to serve the needs of today’s digital natives who expect a personalized and technologically seamless educational experience. 

3 Steps for Improving UX in Higher Education

Apr 04, 2023 • 3 minute read • ross lucivero, evp, product.

Higher Education Digital Capability Framework

An open-source capability framework for higher education. 4 dimensions, 16 domains and 70+ capabilities.

DEMAND AND DISCOVERY (DD)

LEARNING DESIGN (LD)

LEARNER EXPERIENCE (LX)

WORK & LIFELONG LEARNING (WL)

Product Strategy

Marketing Processes

Student Recruit.

Enrolment Mgmt

Curric. Design

Digital Content & C'ware

Subject Matter Expertise

Teaching Strategies

Academic Admin.

Learning & Academic Experience

Student Life

Assess. & Verify

Work Integrated Learning

Career Planning & Placement

Industry & Business Engage.

Alumni & Continuing Education

Market Insights & Trends

Student CRM

Recruit. Events

Course Selection & Guidance

Digital Design Principles

Digital Content Creation

Designing for Digital Learning

Learner Needs & Analytics

Faculty Prof Dvlp

Student Portal & LMS

Onboarding & Orientation

Tests & Exams

Job Skill Building

Evaluate Skills

Industry Collab & P'ships

Continuing Education

Customer Needs

Comms & Campaign Mgmt

Channel P'ships

Application & Admissions

Program Structure

Immersion, Simulation & Lab

Faculty Expertise & Specialisms

Designing Assessment

Faculty Mgmt & Support

Synch. Learning

Wellbeing & Mental Health

Portfolios & Practical

Workplace Simulation & Projects

Career Planning Services

Prof & Industry Assoc.

Industry Mentoring

Competit. & Alternates

Marketing Automation

Schools & Community Outreach

Recognize Prior Learning

Learning Envir. & Platforms

OER & Content Licensing

Sourcing & Managing Expertise

Experiential Learning Approaches

Timetabling & Schedule Mgmt

Asynch. Learning

Student Clubs & Societies

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Customized Programs (B2B)

Alumni Engage.

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Tuition Financing

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Retention & Learning Support

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Student Work

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Education As Employ. Benefit

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Regulatory Compliance

Learning Resources

Student Voice & Surveys

Badge & Credential

Ent'ship & Startups

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Curriculum Quality Mgmt

Library Services

Exchange Programs

Graduation & Success

This is an open source taxonomy and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Webinar 4 - MOOCs. Then. Now. Next.

Webinar 5 - International Higher Education. Emerging Digital Models

Webinar 6 - Scenarios. Higher Education in 2025

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About the Digital Capability Framework

In 2018, HolonIQ released an open source 16-point framework identifying key capabilities underpinning digital higher education. The 16-point framework was used by institutions in different ways to articulate, share and showcase current and emerging models in digital learning, and to identify areas for strategic focus and development.

The 2020 Higher Education Digital Capability (HEDC) Framework builds on the earlier model and adds a deeper focus on digital capabilities across the whole learner lifecycle. Institutional capabilities have been mapped to four connected dimensions across the lifecycle, from Demand & Discovery (DD) to Learning Design (LD), Learner Experience (LX) and Work & Lifelong Learning (WL). The framework encompasses current capabilities such as recruitment, curriculum design, assessment and career planning, but also looks ahead to future and emerging capabilities for successful digital learning.

Informed by academic research and with input from higher education leaders globally, the HEDC Framework offers an overarching view for institutions to map and measure digital capabilities across the learner lifecycle, ultimately to support practical and sustainable approaches to digital services and online learning.

Methodology and Guiding Principles

The HEDC Framework is a learner-focused, practical and flexible approach to mapping and measuring digital capability in higher education institutions. The framework acknowledges educational literature on digital capability and grounds these in current practice using ongoing consultation, research and analysis with higher education leaders around the world. The Higher Education Digital Capability Framework benefits from a continuous and iterative feedback cycle informed by an engaged community of Higher Education professionals.

Learner-Focused

Following the learner lifecycle.

The HEDC Framework looks at digital capability through a learner lifecycle perspective. The 4 Dimensions, 16 Domains and 70+ Capability Blocks consider how a digitally capable organisation can support and enhance learning and student experience at each stage of the lifecycle, from Demand and Discovery through to Work and Lifelong Learning.

Literature reviews & organizational frameworks.

Framework development included review and analysis of models and frameworks on digital capability, including educational instruments such as DigCompOrg and HEInnovate (EU Commission/OECD) and frameworks from bodies such as ACODE (Australasia), JISC (UK) and UNESCO. The Framework also draws on organisational theory and frameworks from business and industry, and their application across functions such as marketing, HR, strategy and innovation.

Input & Iteration

Ongoing research, interviews and testing.

Interviews and consultations with several hundred HE leaders and digital education experts informed the first stages of Framework development, as well as in-depth research with individual industry experts in each of the 4 Dimensions. Research has been conducted with HolonIQ’s Global Panels and Networks at key points during development. The HEDC Framework benefits from a continuous and iterative feedback cycle informed by an engaged community of Higher Education professionals.

Mapping Digital Capabilities in Higher Education

The Higher Education Digital Capability framework identifies four core dimensions along the learner lifecycle: Demand & Discovery (DD), Learning Design (LD), Learner Experience (LX) and Work & Lifelong Learning (WL). Within these are sixteen capability groups or ‘domains’, with more than 70 capability blocks adding a further level of detail. Overall, the framework is designed to allow flexibility and interpretation in context; some institutions will find almost every capability block relevant to their organisational structure, activities and aspirations, whilst others will focus on a more specific set of capabilities applicable to their individual context.

4 Dimensions

The overarching construct that forms the ‘top level’ of the framework is anchored on the student lifecycle, which can help to focus conversations, efforts and actions across different stakeholder groups and departments.

‘Demand and Discovery’ (DD) puts institutional strategy, insights and customer (student) focus at the start of the journey and establishes the importance of data to connect and personalise the student experience at every stage. ‘Learning Design’ (LD) picks up the learner focus and outlines capabilities and emerging skill sets in designing for diverse needs, environments and modalities. ‘Learner Experience’ (LX) sits at the heart of the lifecycle to profile capabilities that support student life, community and wellbeing as well as learning experiences, academic progress and assessment. ‘Work & Lifelong Learning’ (WL) completes the lifecycle, but rather than being a ‘final’ stage, shifts the focus to consider how learners can be supported as they choose and change careers throughout their lives with continued education needs.

At the next level of the framework are 16 ‘domains’ of capabilities - 4 in each lifecycle dimension. These create structured groups of capabilities relating to familiar activities like recruitment, curriculum design, assessment and career planning. These domains can map to organisational teams or structures in an institution, but will also overlap and blur boundaries between these. Connected capabilities can be shared responsibilities across units and departments and supported by shared systems and technologies. This is where the view of the whole lifecycle and groups of capabilities becomes particularly valuable.

70+ Capabilities Blocks

At the deepest level, each of the 16 domains unfolds into a series of blocks that include over 70 distinct digital capabilities. Some are well established in mature digital contexts, whilst others reflect emerging and evolving capabilities in the sector. Not all blocks will be of strategic importance or interest to every institution using the framework, and some are likely to be more ‘aspirational’ for institutions who are in the earlier stages of their digital journey.

The capabilities at this level were identified by analysing common factors in established models and frameworks, and refined in consultation with leaders in higher education institutions around the world. The individual capability blocks will continue to evolve as universities and organisations respond and adapt to changing learner needs and market demand.

Certain capabilities are not articulated in the framework, including those relating to technical infrastructure, data privacy and security, accessibility standards and other technology ‘hygiene factors’ which form part of the supporting structures for digital and online learning. These are well documented in other frameworks, and can be understood to underpin the whole learner lifecycle, also flowing through to functions such as HR, Finance and IT.

Demand and Discovery (DD)

This dimension brings together digital capabilities which impact institutional strategy and early stages in the learner lifecycle, connecting marketing processes, student recruitment and enrolment management.

New models and competitors are challenging established programs, and successful institutions draw on deep and complex data sets to understand and respond to the changing needs of learners, partners and markets.

Data now connects every stage in the student journey, enabling the creation of personalised communications across an array of channels and partners. Prospective learners are diverse and fragmented, requiring sophisticated tools and organisational capabilities to profile, segment, qualify and convert leads.

The demands on user experience (UX) continue to rise; recruitment and enrolment processes are expected to provide consistent, responsive and tailored digital experiences across every touchpoint.

Learning Design (LD)

Digital capabilities in Learning Design combine evidence-based understanding of learner needs and learning processes with emerging skill sets in user experience design (UX), instructional strategies, content and mixed media design.

Successful institutions are designing programs and courses to suit new learning environments, delivery modes and learning approaches. Diverse types of digital content are created, licenced and managed to support learning, responding in particular to the need for immersive learning and simulation in STEM subjects.

Emerging disciplines are also demanding new subject matter expertise, which must be sourced, managed and updated to keep pace with changing industries and knowledge.

Instructional strategies draw on an increasing range of digital capabilities to provide active and adaptive learning experiences for students to learn in different ways, both as individuals and as members of class groups and communities.

Learner Experience (LX)

At the heart of the learner lifecycle is a broad set of digital capabilities supporting student life, community and wellbeing as well as learning processes, academic progress and assessment.

Within Learner Experience, improved digital capabilities are bringing efficiency and relief to burdensome academic administration processes such as timetabling, compliance and reporting. As learning design and delivery changes, faculty professional development remains as important as ever, and remote training brings increased options and opportunities.

Students are able to take more control over their learning journey with improved digital learning environments and a single view of their priorities and progress, tailored to their needs. Where students are geographically distant, digital solutions can help them to create and engage in social groups and communities, and seek out the support they need, when they need it.

Digital assessment and verification capabilities are evolving, with vast improvements showing the potential for assessments, portfolios and exams to be conducted fairly and securely online. Graduations and celebrations can now take place in digital formats for those who can’t attend in person, with digital credential options embedded throughout the student journey.

Work and Lifelong Learning (WL)

Traditionally thought of as the ‘final’ stage in the learner lifecycle, the focus has been shifting for some time to consider how learners can be supported as they choose and change careers throughout their lives, underpinned by ongoing learning and skill development.

Work-Integrated Learning remains a key focus, with digital capabilities enabling virtual internships and remote mentoring with industry professionals. Career planning and placement services are making use of AI and machine learning for skills assessment and matching, whilst jobs fairs and events explore virtual possibilities.

Technology also supports networks and partnerships with industry, connecting learners and professionals and facilitating access to industry expertise. Finally, alumni engagement is thriving in the digital age, as institutions future-proof their roles as education providers by supporting learners at many different points in their lives.

• Methodology

The ucisa Capability Model and Digital Transformation

• by Michael Agnew
• Capability Model
• Digital Transformation

Summary: As part of digital transformation, the business side of your institution and the Information Technology (IT) department will need to fully partner in order to align. Alignment occurs when there is clear understanding of what the institution does or needs to do and how this is addressed by the supporting enterprise architecture. This understanding, expressed in terms of capabilities, becomes the basis of how to plan the investment required to achieve your institution’s digital strategy. Higher Digital is using business capabilities as the lingua franca to help institutions with their digital strategy.

We’re in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The higher education market is facing significant competition, and institutions are either a) gaining market share due to a successful digital strategy and execution, or b) losing ground due to insufficiently prioritised capabilities and/or not making the right impact. What facilitates an effective partnership between the business and IT that can smooth the path to a successful digital strategy?

Let’s start by looking at business capabilities and how they can be used. Ross, Weil and Robertson assert that in order to succeed, an organisation needs to first create a “foundation that supports its strategy.” And they define such a “foundation for execution” as the “IT infrastructure and digitized business processing automating core capabilities”. 1 So, what is a (business) capability? Ulrich Homann defines it as follows: “A business capability is a particular ability or capacity that a business may possess or exchange to achieve a specific purpose or outcome”. 2 Business capabilities are fully applicable to higher education, which has been markedly demonstrated by the awesome body of work created in the UK by ucisa.

Ucisa, the member-led professional body for digital practitioners in education, has created the UK Higher Education Capability Model , which it defines as the set of capabilities an institution requires to execute its business model or fulfil its mission. The capability model was created to deliver the following benefits:

• Promote Enterprise Architecture (EA) within the HE sector through use of tangible assets;
• Promote collaboration and efficiency through reusable models;
• Help ‘jump-start’ EA practices within the sector;
• Create a common business language both within organisations and the sector;
• Promote joined up strategic thinking – The BIG Picture;
• Inform decision making for prioritisation and investment;
• Connect IT to the business. 3

Forrester echoes the benefits derived from using capability models. “These models can act as a ‘Rosetta Stone’ that provides the translation between business concerns and IT concerns. Tying IT strategies, projects, and costs to business capabilities offers a view of IT that resonates with business executives.” 4

The benefits of using capability models cited by Forrester line up nicely with those outlined by ucisa for the higher education space – alignment, partnership, the use of a common language, and informed decision-making for prioritisation and investment – making them key to influencing and supporting a successful digital strategy.

Whilst the core capabilities identified in the ucisa model are relatively stable, there is a need for your institution to prioritise appropriately in order to execute your Digital Strategy. Not least because higher education is facing unprecedented change arising from the Fourth Industrial Revolution with technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Automation seriously impacting the workforce of today.

Vinous Ali, head of policy at TechUK (the UK body representing the technology industry), stated to the BBC in 2019 that “the fact is no job is likely to remain untouched by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, so we will all need to learn new skills.” 5

A recent Forrester report, The Future of Work , reaffirms this: “As much as companies must become learning institutions, so must employees become learners — learning core skills, adapting to new working models, and understanding what it means to be ready and fit for the future, maximizing their Robotics Quotient.” 6

Professional development and lifelong learning will be the norm, and your HE institution must take on this challenge or lose ground to existing competitors and new entrants. Capabilities such as Student Attraction & Recruitment, Student Admission Management, Student Financial Administration and Commercial Activities will require renewed inspection and investment, becoming an important part of your institution’s digital strategy. WIRED recently highlighted the importance of lifelong learning to universities: “By offering students the opportunity to return throughout their careers, universities can leverage their greatest asset – their brand.” 7

How can Higher Digital help you and how are we using the Capability model?

Building a (digital) strategic plan with the right investment priorities to embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution requires great time and effort when you’re already stretched. Higher Digital provides affordable, rapid, and flexible custom solutions to help develop a powerful and competitive digital strategy.

We start by utilising our (SEA)RESULTS® Digital Transformation Management (DTM) Platform , which maps your institutions’ digital transformation progress by assessing capabilities, then compares your progress with other institutions and delivers results faster and for less investment than traditional consulting methods. The Initial assessment provides expert insight into your operations, organisation, and technology, while also recommending capabilities that require review and advice to help you achieve a more impactful digital strategy, while reinforcing the need for a strong connection between IT and business functions.

Our insight will highlight potential new ways of doing business while adhering to your educational mission. We will make recommendations in the area of students; for example, types of students, how you recruit students, how frequently you admit students, and for what duration. Furthermore, the push for continuing professional development will pave the way for new means for students to pay for their educations, including subscription-like business models. All such insights and recommendations will help you shape your Digital Strategy.

1 Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David C. Robertson, Enterprise Architecture as Strategy, Creating a Foundation for Business Execution , Harvard Business School Press, 2006, Chapter 1 (pp. 4-5).

2 Ulrich Homann, A Business-Oriented Foundation for Service Orientation , Microsoft White Paper, February 2006.

3 ucisa, UK HE Capability Model , https://www.ucisa.ac.uk/Groups/Enterprise-Architecture-Group/UK-HE-Capability-Model , 2019.

4 Jeff Scott, Alex Cullen, and Mimi An, Business Capabilities Provide the Rosetta Stone for Business-IT Alignment , Forrester, 6 July 2009.

6 UK Workers Who Lose Jobs to AI Will Be Retrained , BBC, 18 July 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-49019390 .

6 The Future of Work , Forrester, June, 2019, https://go.forrester.com/future-of-work/ “.

7 Heather Emerson, “The Four-Year University Model Needs a Lifelong Learning Overhaul”, WIRED , 7 February 2020, https://www.wired.co.uk/article/university-lifelong-learning .

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Audio and Video, Event resources

The recordings, presentations and resources from the DIG23 Conference are available to all members via login

Change Champions: Improving Digital Skills at Scale at Kingston University

The recording and resources are available from  the Change Champions: Improving Digital Skills at Scale at Kingston University webinar

HE Technology Talent of Tomorrow

The recordings and resources from the HE Technology Talent of Tomorrow webinar are available to members via login

UCISA – Digital Transformation Higher Education Maturity Assessment Report second edition

General, Case Study

The second UCISA Sector Maturity Report which provides an interesting insight into digital maturity within UK Higher Education.

The report highlights areas of strength and weakness as well as providing some practical suggestions for areas the sector should focus on to increase it’s digital maturity.

The report is available for institutional members

NCSC resources for education

The National Cyber Security Centre have  brought together key resources and guidance for people across the education sector, from senior leader through to technical leaders, and academics and researchers. These resources are available via their  website

Intelligent support, management, and optimisation of your networking infrastructure

The recording from Intelligent support, management, and optimisation of your networking infrastructure webinar sponsored by corporate member ITGL is available

Your Checklist for Rolling Out Digital Assessment Technology

The recording from the Your Checklist for Rolling Out Digital Assessment Technology webinar with Corporate member AvePoint is available

Procurement in HE Innovating for Tomorrow

The recording from the UCISA London event Procurement in HE Innovating for Tomorrow is available upon login

Project transition to live Lob it over the fence

The recording from the UCISA-PCMG webinar Project transition to live “Lob it over the fence" is available via login

SSG23 recordings and presentations

The recordings and presentations from the SSG23 face-to-face 2 days conference are available to all members upon login

Defending your unstructured data in the era of data security

The recording for the sponsored webinar Defending your unstructured data in the era of data security is available to member via login

Rethinking Transformation: A Blueprint for Changing the Way We Change

The recording from the Rethinking Transformation: A Blueprint for Changing the Way We Change is available via login

Bring your own cyber risk

The recording from the Bring your own cyber risk webinar is available via login

The UCISA Annual Review June 2022 to May 2023

General, UCISA update

Highlighting the progress we have made as a community in the last year, as we work to achieve the ambitions set out in our Strategic Plan 2022-27 – Building on Success, published in January 2022. We are excited to share the results of this last year with you and hope that you will find the contents of this Review an encouraging indication of the positive direction our organisation and sector at large, is heading in.

Higher Education workforce of Tomorrow

Launched at the the UCISA 23 AGM, the Hays-UCISA Digital Workforce of Tomorrow survey report is available to download by all institutional members upon login

Corporate members available on request from [email protected]

Eco-Friendly Inboxes: Streamlining Email Practices for UK Universities

The recording and resources from the Eco-Friendly Inboxes: Streamlining Email Practices for UK Universities is available

A sneak peek into SSG23, what why and how

The recording and resources from A sneak peek into SSG23, what why and how is available

Tanium's Endpoint Platform for Education

The recording from Tanium's Endpoint Platform for Education webinar is available

WIT23 recording and presentations

The recordings and presentations from WiT23 finding your groove are available

Digital transformation 101

The recording from the Digital Transformation 101 is available

An executive view of UX in HE

The An executive view of UX in HE webinar recording is available

Moving Virtual Desktops to the cloud with George Washington University

The Moving Virtual Desktops to the cloud with George Washington University webinar with Corporate member Apporto is available

Curriculum courseloop

The recording from the Curriculum planning for student success: A discussion with Murdoch University webinar sponsored by Corporate member Courseloop is available to all members via login

CIS 2022 Survey results

Each year UCISA provides a survey of Corporate Information systems used across the sector. This is an invaluable resource made freely available to all UCISA member HEIs and FEIs looking to share experiences with other institutions and understand trends in the marketplace. The ucisa CIS survey is carried out annually and provides a simple snapshot of the core CIS in use by UCISA members. The survey is open to all UCISA members and collects basic information about the main corporate information systems (CIS) in use in the HE sector.

Hybrid cloud

The recording from Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure for a Modern HE Institution with Corporate Member sponsor Nutanix is available to all members via login

In The Thick of It: Major Incident Management and Communications Best Practices

Event resources, Audio and Video, Webinar

The recording from the In The Thick of It: Major Incident Management and Communications Best Practices webinar is available to all members via login

Employment and Equity in the IT industry

The webinar on Employment and Equity in the IT industry is now available to all member via login

The recordings and presentations from UCISA23 are available via login

Today’s Cyber Security Challenges in Higher Education

The recording from the webinar Today’s Cyber Security Challenges in Higher Education, sponsored by Corporate member Crowstrike is available for all members via login

Shared Experiences of Getting Started with Enterprise Architecture in Higher Ed

The recording is available from the Shared Experiences of Getting Started with Enterprise Architecture in Higher Ed webinar

Digitising the student journey

The recording from Digitising the Student Journey - Delivering a Differentiated Student Experience is available to all members via login

Design systems

The recording of the UCISA-UX group's webinar " Design systems - what are they and is your institution ready for one?" is available to all members

Protecting cyber assets

The recording from the fireside chat session with Corporate member BOX and the University of Liverpool and the University of Hull is available to all member via login

Cyber incident toolkit

Audio and Video, Toolkit, Webinar, Event resources

Universities have increasingly become targets of ransomware and other cyber-attacks. Such attacks can result in major disruption of operations, with significant financial and reputational impact.

The Cyber Incident Communications Toolkit, developed by the UCISA Security Group, provides information and resources for planning the communication response of a major cyber incident. The toolkit focuses on the importance of collaboration both internally and with partners to ensure provision of an effective and coordinated communications response with students, staff, funders, and other stakeholders.

The recording from the launch webinar is available to all members

Job tracks and career maps

The recording from the Job tracks and career maps webinar is available to all members via login

Balancing BYOD and Cyber Essentials

The recording from the Balancing BYOD and Cyber Essentials webinar is available to members via login

Starting the year on the right foot

The recording from the Starting the year on the right foot webinar is available to all members via login

UCISA CPD Programme

Peer to Peer CPD, Webinar, Event resources, Best Practice Guide, General, Models

UCISA is developing a CPD programme offering to enable the professional development of individuals and enhance the collective expertise of the UCISA community.

How to understand your users part 2

The recording and presentations from the How to understand your users part 2 webinar for the UCISA User Experience Community of Practice Group are available

Backup and recovery as a foundation for cyber security

Audio and Video, Toolkit, Event resources

The recording and presentation from the Backup and recovery as a foundation for cyber security webinar sponsored by corporate member Rubrik is available to all members via login

Resource and Capacity - Show & Tell 2

The recording and presentations from the UCISA-PCMG Group's second webinar on Resource and Capacity - Show & Tell are now available

CISG-PCMG22

The recordings and presentations are available from CISG-PCMG22 upon login

Recruitment - The Real UniversITy Challenge

The recording and presentations from  Recruitment - The Real UniversITy Challenge are available

Security Conference 2022

The recordings and the presentations are available from the Security Group annual conference Your current staff, your greatest weapon against cyber crime.

The New Digital Education Landscape

The recording from the The New Digital Education Landscape is available

Resource and Capacity - Show & Tell

The recording and presentations from the Resource and Capacity - Show & Tell webinar are available

TEL 2022 Pulse survey

This year’s TEL Survey was developed as a short ‘pulse survey’ to focus on key areas that might have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapid shift to online learning. The survey retained and adapted 16 questions from the 2020 Survey to enable longitudinal analysis to be undertaken with previous TEL surveys.

The Survey provides an invaluable insight of provision within institutions and the emerging patterns of learning technology usage across the UK HE sector. The 2022 findings report an increased provision of centrally supported TEL tools, an increase in outsourcing of TEL provision and an increase in TEL staffing. The findings also show that the sector is undergoing a continuous review cycle for TEL services, note a small growth in fully online delivery and the limited impact of new forms of delivery such as hybrid or hyflex learning.

Enterprise Architecture does it add value

The recording from the webinar  Enterprise Architecture – does it add value? is available

Hacker’s perspective on remote working: know the risks, learn the tricks

Resources and the recording from the Hacker’s perspective on remote working: know the risks, learn the tricks webinar are available

IT Procurement as an enabler of HE Technology

Directors cut

As an early initiative, of the reformed UCISA Transforming IT Procurement Practices Working Group, considered the feedback from a UCISA survey across member institutions from earlier in 2022. Following a roundtable at the inaugural Ahead by Bett in March 2022, the key findings of which were released in a previous Directors Cut publication , members were ask to complete a survey to gage current practices in IT procurement across the sector.

This edition of the Directors' Cut - IT Procurement as an enabler of HE Technology outlines three broad areas, drawn from the findings, which the sector might focus on to address the challenges of internal procurement set-ups in HEIs and to better enable the procurement function to act as a strategic value creator for delivery of information technology services.

Sustainability: Digital technology and procurement

The recordings from the Sustainability: Digital technology and procurement webinar are available

DIG22 recordings and presentations

The recordings and presentations from the DIG22 Conference: SustainabilITy and SurvivabiITy are available to view to all members via login.

Facing the BYOD challenge

Event resources, Webinar

The presentations from the Facing the BOYD challenge are available to member via login.

There is no recording of this event.

How to understand your users - a user research special

Audio and Video, Event resources, Toolkit

The recording from the How to understand your users - a user research special webinar is available.

Diversity in tech

The recording and presentations from the UCISA London Group's webinar on Diversity in tech is available.

Navigate the Changing Landscape of IT in Higher Education

The recording and resources from the Navigate the Changing Landscape of IT in Higher Education webinar is available.

Service Excellence in Higher Education

The recording from the Service Excellence in Higher Education – Enabling world class experiences through automation and integration webinar is available

It's not all about the Cloud!

The recording from the It's not all about the Cloud! webinar is now available.

Managing security related issues in higher education

The recording ad presentation from the Managing security related issues in higher education webinar from UUK is available

I am enough

The recording and presentation from the I am enough - Imposter Syndrome Seen Through a British Pakistani Lens webinar, where Mehnaz Aziz, Educational Technology Advisor, from Birmingham City University considered the impact of imposter syndrome on her own career as an Educational Technologist and focusing on the influence of her cultural heritage as a British Pakistani.

Information Security and Compliance

The recording from UCISA-London's September webinar on Information Security and Compliance is available

Micro-credentials in higher ed: Trends, adoption strategies and technical solutions

The recording from the webinar;  Micro-credentials in higher ed: Trends, adoption strategies and technical solutions is available.

The recording from the Panel discussion: ‘PMO journeys’ is available

Mesh and Metaverse

The recording and presentations from the UCISA London's August event Mesh and Metaverse are available to all members 

Citizen development

With the advent of tools such as PowerApps, Citizen Development is a keen area of interest for the IT industry. Many IT professionals remember the days of Access databases springing up and challenging organisations as the developers of key apps moved on and support was needed for poorly written programmes. The recording from the Citizen Development webinar is available to all members via login

PMOs working together

The second webinar in the series on PMOs: PMOs working together is available

The recordings and the presentations from SSG22 are available via login

Accessibility in HE recording

The recording of the Accessibility in HE - putting users at the centre of the design process webinar from the UCISA UX Group is available

Proactive Data Governance with Cranfield University

The recording of the webinar: Proactive Data Governance with Cranfield University sponsored by Rubrik is available

Embrace Digital: promoting the use of digital technology in HE recording

The recording of the webinar which took a look at the work Lancaster University has done over the last two years to support staff and students to make effective use of digital technology to enhance teaching and learning, and improve work practices. Focusing on in-house developed resources, including Embrace Digital guidance, Digital Skills Certificate and a Digital Skills Self-Assessment tool, all of which led to being awarded the UCISA 22 Award for Supporting Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Research.

Major Incident Processes

Webinar, Event resources, Audio and Video

Recording of UCISA SSG members' meeting on the topic of Major Incident Processes. Accessible to UCISA institutional members via login . 

UCISA – Digital Transformation Higher Education Maturity Assessment Report

The report is available for institutional members only

Information insight recording

The business of Education generates a lot of information, which is rarely utilised to its full potential. How can we tap into this oft-overlooked resource to good effect? Extracting the value from this data could help our institutions react swiftly to change, flag future challenges, and facilitate timely interventions to help nurture students to reach their full potential. The recording of the Information insight webinar is available to all members via login

UCISA Career Mapping Toolkit

Developed as a practical response to assist you in meeting the current talent management challenges faced by the sector. Our new Career Mapping Toolkit is Based on the ‘job track’ methodology developed at Lancaster University and comes packed with resources to enable you to develop streamlined job families suitable to your IT organisation.

The UCISA Annual Review May 2021 to May 2022

Highlighting the progress we have made as a community in the last year, as we work to achieve the ambitions set out in our Strategic Plan 2022-27 – Building on Success, published in January this year. We are excited to share the results of this last year with you and hope that you will find the contents of this Review an encouraging indication of the positive direction our organisation and sector at large, is heading in – in spite of all the turbulence of the last two years.

Digitising curriculum management

The recording from the webinar entitled Digitising curriculum management with CourseLoop – our journey is available

Where to start and where should you go with your PMO?

The recording and presentations from UCISA-PCMG's webinar Where to start and where should you go with your PMO? are available.

The university of the future - what is the cost of sustainability?

The recording from the UCISA joint webinar with AUDE, BUFDG CUBO, HESPA and UHR - The university of the future - what is the cost of sustainability? - is available

Launching the APUC CRM procurement process

The recording and presentation from UCISA-SPG webinar Launching the APUC CRM procurement process is available

Research and Information Technology recording

UCISA-London

The recording and presentations from UCISA-London;s webinar on Research and Information Technology is available to all members.

WIiT22 presentations

Event resources

Pdfs of the presentations from WiT22 The inconvenient imposter…..igniting your confidence are available

DCG Spotlight on digital capabilities: Digital skills, a priority or lip service?

The recordings and presentations from DCG Spotlight on digital capabilities: Digital skills, a priority or lip service? are available to members upon login.

The session recordings and presentations from UCISA22 are available to all members upon login

CIS 2021 Survey results

Delivering projects successfully via agile approaches (2).

The recording from the second webinar on Delivering Projects Successfully via Agile Approaches (2) from UCISA-PCMG webinar is available.

Treating Strategic Tech Sourcing as a Specialism in HE.

The latest in our Ad Hoc Directors’ Cut series of publications which describes the six key findings of the UCISA roundtable session at Ahead by Bett and how they relate to flexible processes, pragmatic governance, and a deeper understanding of IT sourcing skillsets This publication is available to institutional members only upon login.

Delivering Projects Successfully via Agile Approaches (1)

The recording from the UCISA-PCMG webinar Delivering Projects Successfully via Agile Approaches (1) is available

Measuring Performance (2): A Quantitative Model based on Efficiency

The recording of Professor Ian Cloete from the Stellenbosch University second webinar on Measuring Performance: A Quantitative Model based on Efficiency

The Digital Futures Toolkit

The Digital Futures Programme offers support and opportunities for people starting out in their IT careers. It enables them to develop worthwhile learning opportunities that will hopefully lead to full time permanent employment either with their current or other employers.

Recordings and presentations are available from UCISA22 Leadership Conference to members via login.

Portfolio Management: Challenges and Solutions

The final webinar in the series on portfolio management from UCISA-PCMG

Embedding a UCD mindset in HE

UCISA UX CoP

This panel session lead by UCISA UX Community of Practice discussed the experience of embedding a user-centred design mindset into higher education institutions.

Measuring performance 1 - A University Score Card based on Effectiveness

The recording of Professor Ian Cloete from the Stellenbosch University first webinar on Measuring Performance: A University Score Card based on Effectiveness.

Mental health matters

The recordings and resources from the Mental health matters - Exploring mental health for you and your team webinar are available.

IT Contemporary InterSystems 2022

IT Contemporary

Sponsored by UCISA corporate member InterSystems, this copy of IT Contemporary summarises a roundtable discussion among IT leaders from universities in the UK and Ireland about how the pandemic has affected and continues to challenge their work.

UCISA Strategic plan 'Building on Success’ 2022 - 2027

Our new five-year plan ‘Building on Success’ 2022 – 2027 shows how we are going to deliver increased value and emphasises what unites our sector (Higher Education, Further Education and private universities) and our commitment to represent our members with authority and authenticity. It is also about enhancing our connections and building strategic partnerships with government and sector bodies, to amplify the power of our collective voice – moving further and faster to meet member needs at both an individual and institutional level.

Managing Project Portfolios

The recording is available from the UCISA-PCMG webinar on Managing Project Portfolios

Apprenticeships and graduates

The recording and presentations from the UCISA-London Group's February webinar; Apprenticeships and graduates.

Veeam webinar

The recording from the Veeam sponsored webinar on Data protection: recommendations for the Education sector is available to institutional members.

Culture Change and Colleague Engagement

Audio and Video, Peer to Peer CPD, Webinar, Event resources

The recording from the Culture Change and Colleague Engagement webinar is available

The Transition to Power BI

Audio and Video, Event resources, Webinar, Peer to Peer CPD

The recording and presentation from the transition to Power BI webinar are available

Sustainability – getting it right for the future of IT

The recording and presentations from the UCISA-London Group's webinar entitled

The university of the future – are we ready? - recording

The recording from the joint webinar with AUDE, BUFDGM CUBO, HESPA and UHR

Portfolio Management: Organising for Success

The recording, presentations and resources from the first of the UCISA-PCMG group's series on Portfolio Management, entitled Portfolio Management: Organising for Success

2022 CIO and Technology Executive Survey: A Higher Education Perspective recording

Jan-Martin Lowendahl from Gartner and panel of CIOs discussed the results of the survey in the webinar

The return to campus recording

UCISA-SSG hosted a webinar entitled the return to campus were they discussed what has been learnt from the start of the academic year and understand how these lessons will result in changes to how people support students and staff into the future.

Changing your institution's security culture webinar recordings

Recordings and presentations from the Security Group's Changing your institution's security culture Conference are available

User journey mapping

The UX Community of Practice ran a webinar on user journey mapping with Paul Boag who discussed his top tips and lessons learnt when using journey maps. Paul has over 25 years’ experience in UX and has worked with many HEIs during his career.

HESA Data futures

The recording and presentation from HESA colleagues who presented an update on Data Futures, the next steps and plans as we move towards 2023.

Making IT accessible for all!

The recording and resources from Making IT accessible for all! are available

CISG-PCMG21 recordings and presentations

The recordings and presentations from CISG-PCMG21: No going back -Transitioning to a Hybrid Workplace are available via login

UCISA 2020 TEL Survey Panel Session 4 - Teaching models

Audio and Video, Survey

The UCISA 2020 TEL Survey highlighted that blended learning (supplementary) approaches remained more prevalent than active modes of blended learning and fully online learning remained primarily an activity for individual academics or departments. This panel session considers the changes that institutions made to their teaching model during 2020/21 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and how their plans adapted with the changes in Covid-19 related restrictions. It concludes by asking how teaching models may change in the future and what differences might be seen within particular subject areas.

How four top European universities navigated COVID-19 and enriched student outcomes

Four top European universities discuss how they navigated the trials and tribulations COVID-19 brought from the good, to the bad, and even the ugly in this recording

Global HE Capability Model

Event resources, Webinar, Audio and Video

Recording from the launch webinar of The Global Higher Education Capability Model, jointly launched by CAUDIT, EDUCAUSE and UCISA. The reference models comprise a Business Capability Model, a Business Model Canvas, and a Data Reference Model for Higher Education.

The Transformative Impact of BI

Recording and presentation from The Transformative Impact of BI webinar

Apps and education

Recording from the UCISA London November 2021 webinar on Apps and education

UCISA 2020 TEL Survey Panel Session 3 - Culture and institutional Drivers

The UCISA 2020 TEL Survey  reported an increased focus on equality and widening participation as driving factors for the use of TEL. This panel session considers what effect the Covid-19 pandemic had on institutional drivers for TEL, institutional cultures and whether there were any changes in adoption and innovation patterns across the institution in terms of instructional design and assessment modes. It concludes by asking how the pandemic has impacted on the wider digital agenda in terms of topics such as digital skills development and digital accessibility. 

UCISA 2020 TEL Survey Panel Session 2 - Team and Organisational Structures

The UCISA 2020 TEL Survey  survey reported that since 2018, the number of staff supporting TEL had increased in 40% of institutions and this was evidenced by an overall growth in the mean FTE of staff supporting TEL across an institution. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the sector has experienced a large increase in demand for learning technologists and similar roles. This panel session considers the impact that the pandemic had on the number and type of roles providing TEL support across an institution, and how the wider organisational structures supporting TEL and working relationships with other teams have changed. It concludes by considering how panellists envisage TEL support within their institutions changing in the future.

Remote working

The University of York discuss lessons learned about remote working in the webinar entitled: Remote working: challenges and opportunities for inclusive practice

The recording from the Introduction to the NCSC is available

DIG21 recordings and presentations

The recordings and presentations from DIG21: Resilience, Reinvention and Revolution in a Connected World are available

UCISA 2020 TEL Survey Panel Session 1 - The TEL Toolkit

The UCISA 2020 TEL Survey  survey reported that a wide range of TEL tools are supported across institutions, with the virtual learning environment, text matching tools, reading list management software and electronic management of assessment tools forming part of an institution’s TEL toolkit. This panel session considers the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic had on the usage of TEL tools, for example a growth in the use of virtual classroom tools, what the appetite is for reviewing these platforms and which tools might remain in the medium/long term.

Working in partnership to build a Research Information Management System at the University of Westminster

Recording from the webinar  Working in partnership to build a Research Information Management System at the University of Westminster

Project Planning and Agile

Recording from the UCISA London October 2021 webinar: Project Planning and Agile

Over a year of hybrid working: What the data tells us (about women)

The recording from the webinar Over a year of hybrid working: What the data tells us (about women) is available

The Glass Tube

Second webinar recording in the UCISA Leadership series entitled The Glass Tube – how to cultivate new ways of working

Ransomware-proofing during Covid-19, NCSC compliance and 64% TCO savings

The recording from the webinar giving an insight into the challenges faced by Canterbury Christ Church University when identifying a vendor to transform how they provide Multi-Cloud data control and protection across their most critical applications.

Benefits clinic

The recording of the final webinar in the series on Benefit Management brings together speakers from the previous sessions  Grasping the nettle: Benefits Management , how to start and Smoothing the way: Measurements and Tracking  in a Q&A session.

ucisa London Women in tech

The recording from the ucisa London September event which explored how we can encourage women into the sector, better support women currently working in tech, and develop the next industry leaders.

ucisa-London

Recording from the ucisa London webinar on Women in tech which explored how we can support women that want to work in technology.

Post-Pandemic learning and teaching transformation at scale

This webinar cover the journey that Falmouth University have been on since their founding roots as a traditional art school to a leading university for the creative industries who are paving the way for online learning in creative subjects.

Smoothing the way

Recording and presentations from the Smoothing the way: Measurements and Tracking webinar from the ucisa-PCMG Committee. Available to all members after login 

Places and Spaces - Planning for the next academic year in uncertain times

The recording from the Places and Spaces - Planning for the next academic year in uncertain times webinar is available

Digital Poverty (Equality)

The recording and presentation of the Digital Poverty (Equality) hosted by the ucisa London Group

Online harassment – a very real issue for students

The recording and presentation of the ucisa Online harassment – a very real issue for students

Grasping the nettle

The recording of the ucisa-PCMG webinar Grasping the nettle: Benefits Management, how to start

Recordings and presentations from SSG21: Supporting the New Student Experience are available via login

CIS Power BI Dashboard

Each year ucisa provides a survey of Corporate Information systems used across the sector. This is an invaluable resource made freely available to all ucisa member HEIs and FEIs looking to share experiences with other institutions and understand trends in the marketplace. The ucisa CIS survey is carried out annually and provides a simple snapshot of the core CIS in use by ucisa members. The survey is open to all ucisa members and collects basic information about the main corporate information systems (CIS) in use in the HE sector.

This new Power BI dashboard has been designed to help members visualise and interrogate the data in a simple to use format

Job Description Bank

Welcome to the ucisa Job Description Bank, In partnership with member institutions

Please feel free to use the organisation charts and individual job descriptions as you require

Effective Communications and Public Relations after a Cyber Security Incident

ucisa Security Group

The recording of the  inaugural event from the ucisa Security Group where Dr Jason Nurse discussed how effective communications are crucial following a cyber security incident

ucisa EA CoP 2020 Survey report

ucisa EA CoP

Conducted by the ucisa Enterprise Architecture Community of Practice the 2020 survey was completed by 37 institutions, it  gives a very insightful picture of the maturity and footprint of EA in the UK HE sector.

Change Management - the new Superpower for IT leaders

The recording of the Change Management - the new Superpower for IT leaders with Adrian Stalham, the Chief Change Officer from Sullivan and Stanley is available to all members

Cloud Data Management and Ransomware-immune backups – A real life story

The recording of the Cloud Data Management and Ransomware-immune - A real life story webinar is available for you to hear how the Colchester Institute survived a cyber attack.

Service desk and service management

ucisa London

The recordings and presentations from the ucisa London June 2021 about Service desk and service management event are now available to all members via login

ucisa IT Comms Toolkit

ucisa Support Services Group

The aim of this Toolkit is to provide the ucisa community with a resource that anyone involved in IT communications can use. Whether you have an embedded communications team, a central university team or it’s everyone’s responsibility, there’s always room for improvement, and we hope that even someone who has worked in comms for several years can learn from this resource.

Please note the new url of the toolkit

The ucisa Annual Review June 2020 to June 2021

Highlighting the progress we have made as a community in the last year, as we work to achieve and exceed the ambitions set out in our 2018-2022 Strategic Plan. We are excited to share the results of this last year with you and hope that you will find the contents of the Annual Review an encouraging indication of the positive direction our organisation, and sector at large, is heading in – in spite of all the turbulence of the last 15 months.

Digital champions

The presentation of how the Digital Skills Team at Sheffield Hallam University expand the reach of their work by recruiting digital champions.

ucisa London May event

The recording and presentations from the ucisa London May 2021 event on Information Security.  Security of data and systems has never been more important than it is now. The challenge of balancing the academic behaviour and a security-conscious culture is not an easy one. This session seeks to explore some of the challenges and some of the ways that other institutions have risen to the challenge.

DCG Spotlight 2021

Improving online access overseas 3.

The recording from the third and final instalment in our series of virtual events concerned with ensuring continued online access for students based overseas.

Procurement frameworks 101

Hosted by Tina Pask, Chair of the ucisa Software Procurement Group, the Procurement Frameworks 101 recording discusses the HE sectors extensive use of framework agreements, why we use them and what benefits they bring institutions.

2020 TEL survey report

We are pleased to announce that the results of the tenth ucisa Survey of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL Survey) are now available. This survey offers a longitudinal perspective of TEL developments over a 19-year period within UK institutions, while incorporating some new areas of interest based on sector developments. These new additions include: accessibility; inclusive practice; partnerships for fully online learning; and an expansion of the systems included in TEL reviews. The Report provides an invaluable insight of provision within institutions and the emerging patterns of learning technology usage across the UK HE sector.

IT Contemporary - InterSystems

IT Contemporary, General, Event resources

Showcasing the digital transformation experience of a major teaching hospital with numerous insights for higher education, our third IT Contemporary offers an excellent case study for the benefits of data interoperability.

With input from University Hospital Southampton (UHS) and InterSystems , this paper provides a great overview of a recent ucisa webinar, “The Journey to Interoperability with University Hospital Southampton” – ucisa members can access the recording  via login.

An Ambitious Vision Digital Transformation driving Strategic Ambition

The webinar recording of An Ambitious Vision Digital Transformation driving Strategic Ambition The University of Portsmouth has bold plans for the future. The webinar brought together SThree PLC / Real Public Sector along with the Portsmouth team and Salesforce in discussing them.

Education and the Cloud

ucisa London Group

The recordings and presentations from the ucisa London April 2021 event entitled Education and the Cloud

Wellbeing pedagogies practices to improve the student experience online

The recording from Wellbeing pedagogies practices to improve the student experience online webinar is online

Accelerating the Development of Open Standards

The recording from Accelerating the Development of Open Standards: The Journey to Interoperability with University Hospital Southampton webinar is available

Enabling Hybrid Learning for Higher Education Practical Solutions

The recording from  Enabling Hybrid Learning for Higher Education Practical Solutions webinar is available

Quiet Leadership and Crisis Management

The recording from  Quiet Leadership and Crisis Management Peer-to-Peer CPD webinar is available

Securely enabling todays remote Learning Environment

The recording from the  Securely enabling todays remote Learning Environment webinar is available

CEO update for Corporate members March 2021

UCISA update

Deborah Green, ucisa CEO

The CEO update for Corporate members gives a run down on what has happened in the first quarter of 2021 

CEO update for Institutional Members March 2021

The CEO update for full institutional members gives a run down on what has happened in the first quarter of 2021. This publications is for full institutional members only and can be accessed once logged in.

ucisa Jobs Board

Check out the some of latest jobs in the sector 

Green paper response

UCISA update, General

A  combined response  submitted from the membership of ucisa to the Green Paper on Transforming Public Sector Procurement, published in December

Leading and Developing people

The recording from ucisa-London's Marche event  Leading and Developing people is available

Home Office update on the Graduate immigration route change

The recording and resources from the  Home Office update on the Graduate immigration route change webinar are available

Planning for recovery and economic growth

The recording from the Planning for recovery and economic growth – the role of universities and their finance teams webinar in available

2021 - The year for embracing IT Innovation and change

The recording from the 2021 - The year for embracing IT Innovation and change is available

A new learning experience: what’s next for the education sector?

The recording from the A new learning experience: what’s next for the education sector? webinar is available

Building a simplified back up solution for all data security

The recording from the  Building a simplified back up solution for all data security is available

The Shifting Axis of Cyber Crime

The recording from  he Shifting Axis of Cyber Crime is available

Diversity and Digital Leadership

The recording from the  Diversity and Digital Leadership Peer-to-Peer CPD webinar is available

The potential of organisational frameworks

ucisa-london

The recording from the ucisa-London February webinar  The potential of organisational frameworks is available

The Perfect Storm

The recording from the Perfect Storm event is available

Mick Jenkins

Time to think differently about cyber security. Organisations must know and think like an attacker and observe their behaviours to become more cyber and business resilient.

‘Think like the adversary – act like a hunter’. 

Michael Jenkins MBE 

Augmenting the reality of Education

The recording of the ucisa London groups January 2021 event  Augmenting the reality of Education is available

Establishing a Business Analysis Practice in the HE Sector

ucisa Project and Change Management Group

Business analysis is rapidly gaining momentum in the higher education sector, with many universities having a business analysis practice already established in one form or another. In this resource we provide several tools and techniques you can use to measure and understand the maturity of your own practice and outline some building blocks for developing your practice. We discuss how business analysis can add value to your organisation and highlight some potential solutions to common issues your practice might face. Case studies are included from institutions across the UK in order to give an insight into established practices sitting at different levels of the maturity model.

Lean for Your Team approach to Business Continuous Improvement

The recording from  Lean for Your Team approach to Business/Continuous Improvement a Peer-to-Peer CPD webinar in available

Delivering an engaging remote student experience

The recording from the Delivering an engaging remote student experience webinar is available

Data Protection Lessons Learned from a Departing DPO

Audio and Video, Webinar, Event resources, Peer to Peer CPD

Craig Clarks talks about his time as the DPO at the University of East London in this webinar recording.

IT Contemporary - HPE

This report will explore how the experience of the Covid-19 pandemic has put the foundations in place for universities to reshape the way they deliver higher education and manage their facilities into the 2020/21 academic year and beyond. With input from two Russell Group universities, HPE and ucisa, the paper offers examples of how technology can help higher education run more efficiently and demonstrates how lessons learnt through innovating at speed can continue to benefit institutions in the months and years ahead.

DIG-SSG Security workshop

ucisa DIG and SSG

The recording from the joint DIG and SSG Community Day With a mix of presentations, round table discussions and exercises the day provided different perspectives on cyber security to challenge assumptions and improve your planning and responses.

Designing Effective Governance Models

Best Practice Guide, Event resources, Peer to Peer CPD, Webinar

Gareth Edwards from University of Greenwich looked at the pragmatic principles that underpin good governance in the fourth Peer to Peer CPD session

Best Practice Guide, Webinar, Event resources

Recordings from SSG20 Conference: Focusing on the opportunities and challenges of delivering blended support in a VUCA world.

Fluency with Teams and Office 365

In April 2020, the Lancaster University ran a MS Teams Live event called ‘Getting the most out of Teams & Office 365’, Following on from that Ben & the team at Lancaster University gave an update on staff proficiency, usage and development with Office 365 across academic departments and professional services at Lancaster. During the webinar, they explored the features in Office 365 that have proved the most popular, invite comments and insights from other institutions, and discuss thought-provoking forward-looking questions such as whether the traditional VLE has a place with Teams embraced by so many, and what the future of email looks like.

Portfolio management

This recording is focussed on sharing good best practice programme/project portfolio management information reporting to support governance

Student Multi-Experience: re-imagining mobile enabled services in HE

Audio and Video, Event resources, Peer to Peer CPD, Webinar

This peer to peer CPD session provided 3 webinars over 3 days. Entitled Student Multi-Experience: re-imagining mobile enabled services in HE Multi Experience means Multi technology and Multi-Collaboration: Are you really ready for a University App? these webinars explored and invited continuous debate around the topic of a mobile enabled student experience.

CISG-PCMG20

ucisa CISG and ucisa PCMG

Storming and Performing… In the new Normal? Three days of webinar recording put together by the CISG and PCMG committees

The challenge for Education

The ucisa London group ran a webinar on the The Challenge for Education. In March Covid-19 suddenly taught education institutions that there were other ways of working than congregating in rooms for meetings and teaching. Collaboration software that most IT departments were using were suddenly taken up by the whole organisation and their potential started to be understood.

IT Contemporary - AWS

In June 2020, ucisa hosted a roundtable discussion between CIOs from institutions across Europe, considering their responses to the COVID-19 crisis as well as the current challenges and opportunities that have resulted from the most tumultuous year in recent memory. We thank AWS for their support of this discussion. It is the valuable content of this engaging, high-level discussion that has formed the basis for our inaugural ucisa IT Contemporary piece. It will form part of an ad-hoc series under the banner of IT Contemporary - Articles that Connect Ideas, Share Best Practice and Transform IT Delivery.

The CAUDIT HE Business and Data Reference Model

To coincide with the release of their new version 2.5, the ucisa EA |Community of Practice ran a ucisawebinar with the co-chairs of the CAUDIT Enterprise Architect Community of Practice and architects of the CAUDIT Higher Education Business and Data Reference models.

Recording from the DIG20 Conference entitled Infrastructure in a world of Digital Transformation: Nirvana or Neverland?. Digital Transformation, and the integration of digital technology across all aspects of our institutions to bring business value, is something that is certainly a hot topic across the sector. What does Digital Transformation mean for those of us responsible for designing, implementing and managing IT infrastructure and networks? How do we ensure that our infrastructures are a cornerstone of Digital Transformation and demonstrate the true value of IT to the business?

Journey to modernisation

In ucisa’s second peer to peer CPD session Journey to modernisation – building an integrated infrastructure service and remaining relevant in the Cloud Era, Mehmet Batmaz the Head of Infrastructure at the University of Greenwich, took us through his approach to building an agile and adaptable Infrastructure service, and covering topics such as leadership and relationships, applying architectural principles, and redefining team structure and scope in the modern world.

WiT20: Supportive, Disruptive, Resilient

The inaugural Women in Tech Group conference sponsored by Domain 7 offered an opportunity to discuss ways everyone can all help in making the workplace and industry more appealing to women and help bridge the diversity and skills/recruitment gap.

CEO update for Corporate members October 2020

The CEO update for Corporate members gives a run down on what has happened in the ucisa year up until September 2020.

CEO update for Institutional members October 2020

The CEO update for institutional members gives a run down on what has happened in the ucisa year up until September 2020. This publications is for full institutional members only and can be accessed once logged in.

ISO 27001: Everything you need to know

Audio and Video, Best Practice Guide, Webinar

The recording hosted by the ucisa London Group and sponsored by Phoenix entitled and ISO 27001: Everything you need to know focused on ISO27001, what it is and how to implement it in an educational environment.

Trusted Research Environments: Presenting IT as an Enabler in developing relationships and successful partnerships

Leading our very first CPD session was Katie Wilde, Digital Research Services Manager at the University of Aberdeen. The recording is entitled Trusted Research Environments: Presenting IT as an Enabler in developing relationships and successful partnerships

How smart data management enabled the Nightingale Hospital Birmingham to rapidly respond to COVID-19

This event entitled How smart data management enabled the Nightingale Hospital Birmingham to rapidly respond to COVID-19 was sponsored by Corporate Member InterSystems.

The recording explores how system integration was vital to help the NHS safely and securely share patient data between the 5,000 capacity Nightingale Hospital Birmingham, set up to cope with increased demand from COVID-19, and 16 acute NHS trust sites – including a number of university hospitals – and why the same principles can be applied to sharing student data.

Why Payment Security is more than just PCI DSS

This event entitled Why Payment Security is more than just PCI DSS. Payment Security - is it falling through the gaps? was sponsored by WPM Payment Security.

The recording from the event will be of interest to all ucisa members who appreciate that payment security is more than just PCI DSS compliance. It is also for those who would like to build their understanding in this critical area, as well as those who are interested in the topic of data security more generally.

Maintaining and adapting positive learnings

Recording from the  international panel session, hosted, in partnership with ucisa member TechnologyOne entitled Maintaining and adapting positive learnings

Adapting support for users in a locked-down world

Hosted by ucisa-SSG This webinar entitled Adapting support for users in a locked-down world focused on how first and second line support has adapted to assist users despite the current (remote) working climate.

Senior leadership digital awareness and capabilities

The recording from the event presented in collaboration wtih AdvanceHE entitled Senior leadership awareness & capabilities- the role of CIOs and their executive colleagues in informing, guiding, and leading organisational solutions

Redefining the data-driven intelligent campus

Recording from the Redefining the data-driven intelligent campus webinar, sponsored by HPE and in association with AUDE (Association of University Directors of Estates)

Spotlight on Digital capabilities webinar 3

The last in a series of three webinar from the ucisa Digital Capabilities Group entitled  Webinar Design to Promote Quality Engagement: Towards a Transactional Model and Toolkit

The new educational normal

With the gradual dwindling of cases of COVID-19, colleges and universities are considering how to get back to usual. There are a few different ways to do this and each has different challenges. This session of the ucisa London group is designed to provide an opportunity to discuss the topic. To help organisations refine their plans and ensure that we all benefit from the knowledge and thinking within our group. The session will be in three parts and, though it will be guided, will rely on input from attendees.

The recording is available to institutional members only

Spotlight on Digital capabilities webinar 2

The second in a series of three webinar from the ucisa Digital Capabilities Group entitled  Virtual Stratified Medicine Lab – intro to basic lab skills. (Designing a virtual lab tour to promote the learning and teaching of Stratified Medicine).

Spotlight on Digital capabilities webinar 1

The first in a series of three webinar from the ucisa Digital Capabilities Group entitled  Co-creating through staff-student partnership to increase student employability skills

Information Security Training Awareness course Spring 2020

Best Practice Guide, Toolkit, General

ucisa has released an updated version of its popular Information Security Awareness Training Course to reflect changes in the information security threat landscape, and to respond to new legislation such as GDPR (the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679) and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Please note that access to the link is restricted to the named representatives of ucisa institutional full members only.

CIS 2019 Survey

ucisa Corporate Information Systems Group

The Corporate Information Systems Group (CISG) has carried out its annual survey of all ucisa member institutions in each year since 2007.

This survey is one of the essential outputs from the CISG group; it establishes what systems and tools are currently in use , reveals the trends the tools have throughout their life cycle within institutions.

ucisa London Group May webinar on Information security

The ucisa London Group's webinar for May 2020  focused on Information Security and included:

Current issues arising out of changed working patterns Security in Zoom Risk management for home working Remote meeting etiquette

Recruitment and Retention Guide

At the ucisa19 Leadership Conference, members voiced the need for us to foreground the huge range of career opportunities in the HE IT sector, to tackle the challenge faced by many in recruiting and retaining strong talent to our institutions. A cross representative community of institutions are involved in steering the work in this area, with the deliverable objective of producing a guide on attracting and retaining good staff in HE IT that the whole sector will benefit from. We have also forged a partnership with Domain7, to deliver this project, enabling us to draw on their insight through their engagement with key stakeholder groups, from within and outside of the sector.

Uncaging the data

Hosted by the ucisa Enterprise Architecture Community of Practice see how the University of Leeds are using the ucisa Capability model and Information architecture to begin to unlock the potential of data by stepping beyond GDPR.

Covid-19: how London institutions are responding

The ucisa London Group Committee held an hour-long webinar giving participants the opportunity to gain insight from FE and HE peers in London by asking questions ans sharing experiences. The webinar focused on addressing networking and infrastructure challenges faced during the Covid-19 pandemic

University of East London MS Teams implementation experience

On 27 February 2020, the University of East London ran an interactive webinar where they shared their MS Teams implementation experience. They have been using Microsoft Teams since January 2018, at first for professional services and then later that year for a small number of academics and their students.

Unified Comms Today

During this one day event speakers from within the HE sector and wider industry looked at what Unified Comms actually meant to organisations and what has been done, if anything, in delivering it. The success (or otherwise) of those deployments was discussed and lessons that could be learnt was also looked at.

Supplier day resources

ucisa hosted a one-day event for our corporate members, the event was aimed at those companies that are already established in higher education as well as those looking to break into the sector.

Attendees had the opportunity to find out more about what ucisa does, and how they can use their membership to gain greater insight into higher education including the strategic challenges and hot topics facing this unique sector.

Cultural Challenges Study Tour

Presentations and resources from the Cultural Challenges Study Tour of Teesside University.

Teesside University has embarked upon one of the largest digital transformation projects in the UK HE sector, with an emphasis on 1-1 device deployment for staff and students. Over an 18-month period, the University has developed and embedded a mandatory Digital Development Programme for all teaching staff which has generated a 96% satisfaction rating from participants and enabled the University to accrue the largest concentration of Microsoft Innovative Educator Experts in the UK. Significant benefits have already been realised from this project, including measurable impact on student learning, enhanced staff digital capabilities and a revised approach to collaborative working between IT and learning and teaching functions within the University.

Digital accessibility resources

Best Practice Guide, Event resources, Toolkit

 ucisa have gathered together some information and resources on digital accessibility and the legislation surrounding it

The Infrastructure survey 2018

ucisa Infrastructure Group

The first Infrastructure Group survey was conducted in 2018. The survey attracted 66 responses from a wide range of institutions, ranging from small further education colleges through to large research intensive universities. This report highlights the key findings.

The Directors' Cut edition 2 - cyber security and FOI

ucisa staff and the ucisa Board of Trustees

The Directors' Cut is a briefing intended to inform CIOs and Directors of IT Services. In this edition we discuss the recent spate of Freedom of Information requests related to cyber security experiences in the sector, and offer guidance to members that may help when institutions face such queries.

The Directors' Cut edition 1 - Accessibility legislation

Fiona Strawbridge, University College London

Digital Capabilities Survey Report 2019

ucisa Digital Capabilities Group

Digital capabilities survey report  2019 published. The report focuses on the current activity and strategic drivers for both staff and student digital capabilities in higher education institutions.  This Digital Capabilities Survey Report 2019 is the culmination of analysing the results from the third  survey undertaken by the ucisa Digital Capabilities Group. The 2019 survey built on previous surveys and the data have been analysed to give an insight into institutional activity to help further the digital agenda.

VLE Toolkit

ucisa members

CIS Survey 2018

The survey is carried out annually and provides a simple snapshot of the core corporate information systems in use by ucisa members. It is open to all ucisa members and collects basic information about the main corporate information systems (CIS) in use in the HE sector. The snapshot is supplemented by a report which shows the trends in CIS use.

Approaches to Business Continuity in Universities

Best Practice Guide

Approaches to Business Continuity in Universities is a concise resource for anyone responsible for a business-critical process within their institution and those, such as members of the Board of Governors, who have oversight responsibilities for these processes. Constructed using interviews with eleven experienced professionals from across the sector, the publication looks at how to create a business continuity plan, how to test it and how to embed business continuity planning into your organisation. It also contains prompts to help the reader consider their department's readiness for significant disruptions such as severe weather, the failure to renew a contract with a major monopoly supply or a denial of service attack on the academic network. Approaches to Business Continuity in Universities has been written for registrars, finance directors, heads of HR, libraries and estates, CIOs and other professional services, and for those with an interest with business continuity such as the audit committee.

2018 TEL survey case studies

ucisa Digital Education Group

This publication presents a series of case studies on institutional approaches to the management of Technology.

Enhanced Learning (TEL) services and is intended to serve as a companion report to the 2018 ucisa Technology Enhanced Learning Survey Report, which captures TEL developments across the UK Higher Education (HE) sector. This publication builds on the series of case study interviews which accompanied the ucisa TEL Survey reports in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2016

2018 Technology Enhanced Learning survey

The Digital Education Group has carried out regular surveys on the use of technology enhanced learning in the higher education sector. In addition to reviewing the technology in use, the survey looks at the drivers behind the adoption of technology enhanced learning in institutions. The results of the 2018 survey, the ninth in the series, have now been published. Details of all the surveys are available upon request

Privacy Impact Assessment Toolkit

The ucisa Privacy Impact Assessment Toolkit explains how to carry out Privacy Impact Assessments, and has been written specifically to meet the needs of the higher education community. A template for recording the outcomes of a Privacy Impact Assessment is also included within the Toolkit, which is available as a PDF. A companion volume, available as a Word document,  containing a worked example of a PIA for the introduction of Microsoft Office 365 at a fictional university illustrates how the process works and the type of privacy risks that a PIA can highlight. Please note that these documents were published before the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 came into force and as such may not be fully accessible.

The truth about data and analytics

ucisa and SeroHE

Please note that this document was published before the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 came into force and as such may not be fully accessible.

GDPR is coming - what shall we do

Universities and Colleges are increasingly aware of the impending need to comply with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) from 25 May 2018. However, in many institutions this translates to high level corporate projects that do not include or appropriately communicate with the IT community. Those charged with managing institutions’ corporate information systems are well placed to understand both the current practices with regard to data management and the feasibility and impact of changes required to comply with GDPR. Evidence, however, suggests that such colleagues are not always sufficiently included in GDPR projects.

UK HE Capability Model

ucisa Enterprise Architecture CoP

ucisa Enterprise Architecture Community of Practice began a project to create a generic capability model for the UK HE sector. In simple terms this project has tried to identify, and group, all the individual ‘building blocks’ (capabilities) required to run a UK HE organisation.

UCISA Strategic Plan: 2018-22 Connecting and Collaborating for Success

General, UCISA update, Audio and Video

ucisa Board of Trustees

ucisa's Strategic Plan for the five-year period 2018-2022 is the culmination of an ambitious two-year project to reshape and refocus the organisation to meet not only current, but the future and emerging needs of you, our members, to 2022. As an organisation run by members for the benefit of the entire membership, both the development of the Strategic Plan and the key deliverables have been driven by the collective views and priorities you put forward. It's a shared plan requiring shared input to deliver shared advantage and means ucisa will continue to create real benefit and value for all of us in the years ahead. Among the key themes are making resources more accessible and relevant to the wider community supporting technology use, opening new communication channels to share knowledge more easily and placing even greater emphasis on informing, promoting and fostering ucisa's expert member community and the know-how needed to continue to make effective use of technology in delivering an excellent student experience and operational efficiency.

The UK Higher Education Service Desk Toolkit

This Toolkit provides an overview of service desk good practice in a higher education context, and is supported by practical guidance that has been collated from across the support services community.

Establishing Process Improvement Capabilty in an HE enviroment

Process improvement activity is increasing in UK universities, partly in response to calls for increased effectiveness and efficiency but also as a response to today’s rapidly changing political and economic environment. This guide seeks to evidence what higher educational organisations are currently doing to embed process improvement capability and to support those considering undertaking such activity or those already doing so.

Please note that these documents were published before the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 came into force and as such may not be fully accessible.

The UK Higher Education Learning Space Toolkit

SCHOMS, AUDE and ucisa

The Toolkit provides guidance for Audiovisual, IT and Estates teams, and demonstrates why the provision of excellent learning spaces should be a strategic, institution-wide concern.

Constructed from interviews from eleven experienced professionals, the Toolkit explores pedagogical principles and their place in learning space design, and gives an honest insight in to the realities of cross-professional working in universities and colleges. The Toolkit includes advice on: managing a learning space project, working with professional advisors, considerations for particular types of learning space, using learning technologies, the evaluation of learning spaces and changing working practices.

Effective Benefits Management for IT and Business Change Projects

This toolkit aims to provide an overview of the principles behind Benefits Realisation and some basic tools for use in projects in HE and other sectors, while providing some signposts to more sophisticated techniques that are available should a project require them. Benefits management aims to ensure that benefits that have been identified at the start of a project are realised and that any benefits that emerge as the project progresses are properly exploited. As many project benefits are not realised until after the project is closed it is important that appropriate structures are put in place to monitor benefits realisation post project.

Social Media Toolkit: a practical guide to achieving benefits and managing risks

Best Practice Guide, Toolkit

This Toolkit stems from growing interest in the use of social media within the ucisa community. With institutional stakeholders looking increasingly to their information services departments for support in this area, our members sought a reference guide to help them answer a range of questions on related topics. More than that, however, they were seeking practical, contextual examples of use that would inspire others within their institution to take advantage of the affordances of a set of tools that offer new forms of engagement and ways to enhance many aspects of everyday business practice.

Establishing a PMO in and HE environment

The purpose of this document is to provide guidance for higher education institutions considering establishing a Project Management Office (PMO) function. It includes advice on designing your PMO and on implementation as well as providing a set of example artefacts. This guide particularly addresses the situation where the PMO is looking after business change and IT projects only, rather than a joint Estates/IT PMO, although much of the following will be applicable in both cases.

This guide forms part of a set of ucisa Project and Change Management publications including the Major Project Governance Assessment Toolkit and the guide to Effective Risk Management for IT and Business Change Projects and is intended to be used in conjunction with them. (Both available on request )

ucisa Information Security Management Toolkit

The ucisa Information Security Management Toolkit has been constructed for use by information security/governance professionals wishing to put in place an ISMS in their organisation. It also addresses how to convey the importance of information security to the organisation, since the need for an ISMS is based upon the acceptance that information security is worth investing in. This edition of the Toolkit outlines an approach to successfully implement an ISMS based on ISO/IEC 27001:2013 (Information technology — Security techniques — Information security management systems — Requirements). It is intended as a practical resource, providing an overview of the key aspects of a successful ISMS and guidance on how to implement them. It also includes case studies, as well as templates and example resources which organisations can tailor to suit their needs.

A high quality printed copy of this publication is available upon request

Model IT Regulations for the use of institutional IT facilities and systems

This publication designed to provide a brief, easily comprehensible set of regulations for the use of IT facilities in UK HE institutions.

Recent News and Views

Ucisa24 thought leadership - chapter four.

Our next article of the UCISA24 leadership session, this week written by Jason Oliver, CIO at the University of Sussex is available

UCISA24 Thought leadership - Chapter Three

The fourth thought leadership piece from UCISA24 is written by the CIO of Northumbria University, Dr Simon Corbett,

UCISA24 Thought leadership - Chapter Two

The third thought leadership article from UCISA24. Written by Emma Woodcock, CIO at York St University and Chair of UCISA

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