Academic excellence for business and the professions

Aligning IT and University Strategy

Professor Paul Curran

Vice-Chancellor

11th March 2014

Introduction

• Staff & students’ needs and competencies (demand) & IT capability (supply) are changing rapidly

• Major implications for HEIs’ research, enterprise, education & support of all three

• Here I will focus on education:

IT for the delivery & support of education

our experience at City

some challenges

IT for delivery and support of education: some demand trends relevant to City

1. Humanising HE

2. Enhancing education experience

3. Engendering community spirit

1. Humanising HE

“To improve our educational establishments, we have to humanise them and make education personal to every student and lecturer in the system. Education is always about relationships. Great lecturers are not just instructors and test administrators: they are mentors, coaches, motivators and lifelong sources of inspiration to their students.”

Professor Sir Ken RobinsonTED Talks Education Conference, 7th May 2013

• Some universities are meeting this challenge by exploiting IT• Most City University London students possess an internet-enabled

device and want to use it• With high speed broadband, such devices extend the reach of HE

& increase access to learning resources

2. Enhancing education experience

• Around half of our students are from outside the UK• The “Flipped Classroom” if used well can enhance the

educational experience• Academics can prepare lectures in advance & stream online• Students can watch the lecture repeatedly (any time any place) at

a pace & on a device of their choice• Academics can use their time to focus on mentoring, coaching &

motivating through onsite tutorials

3. Engendering community spirit

• We have a very fragmented academic staff & student community• Net generation students are ‘digital natives’, experienced multi-

taskers & comfortable interacting online• Staff & students need to work collaboratively, moving effortlessly

and together between physical & virtual worlds• Social media together with the VLE, self-service applications and

BYOD have a role in providing flexible, inspiring learning spaces

IT for delivery and support of education: some supply trends

1. Outsourced infrastructure

2. Commoditised components

3. Ubiquitous wi-fi

Our recent experience at City

1. What are we trying to achieve?

2. Then: 2010/11

3. Organisation of IT change process

4. IT & its alignment with the Strategic Plan

5. Now: 2013/14

6. The future

1. What are we trying to achieve?

• City University London aspires to be ‘a leading global University ranked within the top 2% of universities in the world by 2016’ & is investing around £200M quickly in people, IT & its estate

• To achieve the educational aspects of the Strategic Plan, we needed to create a ‘sector leading’ IT experience in key areas (sector average in others)

• Part of this will be delivered by exploiting the potential of IT

2. Then: 2010/11

• IT Services: £14.6M budget, 142 FTE staff• Governance of projects weak & poorly-linked to Strategic Plan• IT infrastructure predominantly insourced & needed updating • Technology in education of average technical capability with

inadequate speed & functionality• No clearly-defined standard (consistency & quality) for

equipment in learning spaces: poor condition / design of PC labs• Core business processes sub-optimal: overly complex

application architecture• Devolved ‘cottage industry make’ approach rather than

centralised & ‘commoditised buy’ approach• Notwithstanding pockets of excellence, the overall perception of

IT Services : reactive, lacking excellent customer service, poor at completion & lacking agility

3. Organisation of IT change process

Governance structures were developed with IT making major contributions to Strategic Plan implementation ‘work streams’, each led by a member of the University Executive Team:

ENHANCING OUR CULTURE TO DELIVER

ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

SUCCEEDING WITHSTUDENTS

SUCCEEDING WITHRESEARCH AND ENTERPRISE

• Recruitment• Performance management• Development• Academic staff experience

• Educational success• Student experience• Student recruitment• Student journey

• Quality• Impact• Quantity

4. IT & its alignment with the Strategic Plan: Phase one

• Engage IT Services closely with all of City so it is better able to provide services that support the Strategic Plan

• An efficiency programme to unify & simplify core business processes

• Rationalise applications• Add an infrastructure of leading technologies: Moodle (enhance

learning environment), Office 365 (strengthen collaboration), Sharepoint (personalise education) - quickly

• Reorganise around a ‘one City’ shared internal service model

4. IT and its alignment with the Strategic Plan: Phase two

• Source commodity IT (e.g., platform hosting, finance & HR systems) through third parties

• The skills of IT staff significantly enhanced to provide the capability to develop unique services that directly enhance education & research (VLE, portal, audio/visual)

• Stabilise & improve infrastructure, implement sector-leading devices in education & significantly improve service to students

5. Now: 2013/14 - conceptually

• IT Services: £12.1M budget, 135 FTE staff (more junior mix)• Strong project governance with priorities set by Strategic Plan• Modern outsourced IT infrastructure• Sector leading IT in key areas of education: fast & functional• Standard equipment in educational spaces: consistent & high

quality• Standardised & simplified core business processes, supported

by commodity components• Centralised and ‘commoditised buy’ approach within a ‘One

City’ internal shared service model• Perception of IT Services as proactive, agile & student &

academic staff focussed (SU award for improvements to services for students)

5. Now: 2013/14 – infrastructure examples

• Transfer of some systems to (external) shared service data centre: saving £3.5M over 10 years.

• Reduction of 9% in annual cost of IT hardware.• Significant improvements in wi-fi provision• Improved resilience, backup &recovery leading to fewer

interruptions to core business activities• Establishment of 24 * 365 Service Desk• Implementation of Eduroam wireless network (allowing staff to

access services at universities around the world)• Replacement of email & calendar system with Office 365 –

delivering 25Gb of mail storage space to staff & students.

5. Now: 2013/14 - education examples

• Stabilisation of Online Registration system• Upgrade of over 1,600 student lab PCs with improved memory• Implementation of Echo 360 lecture capture • Enhanced look, feel & functionality of Moodle• Implemented system to manage Moodle digital assets• Implementation of a university-wide module evaluation system to

collect student feedback and produce management reports

6. The future

• Increased commoditisation will present more opportunities for gradual outsourcing & reducing IT staff numbers

• Commodity IT sourced through third parties• Unified core processes for all administration• Increased & improved provision of education online: student

access through own devices• ‘Big Data’ analysis to assess student progress & to provide

individual course pathways• Enhanced IT staff skills to purchase & integrate components &

deliver differentiated services• IT staff roles will morph from technical to hybrid: technical core

with business analysis & relationship management

Some challenges: for staff

Changing skills for academic staff• Integrating technical & pedagogic skills• Changing the way we educate • Becoming as adept at working within the virtual world as the

physical world • Mastering the skills of our Net generation students• Training

Changing skills for IT staff• Relationship management – both supplier & student• Systems integration more relevant than application development &

maintenance• Training

Some challenges: for IT Services

Conclusion

General

• Strong trends in student demand & IT supply• Challenges for both IT staff & academic staff• Meeting them is essential for student & academic staff satisfaction

At City

• Devolved IT became ‘One City’ IT• System downtime reduced• IT staffing costs reduced by £1.2M• Non-staff costs reduced by £1.3M• NSS scores for IT increased by 5% so far• In a nutshell: at City we stabilised and improved service, reduced

IT staff and non-staff IT costs and satisfied our students• But there is much more to do