[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”off” specialty=”on” _builder_version=”3.17.6″][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ specialty_columns=”4″][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=”Row”][et_pb_column_inner type=”4_4″ saved_specialty_column_type=”2_3″][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=”3.17.6″ featured_placement=”above” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.17.6″]<\/p>\n
Malcolm Whitehouse, Chief Information Officer, talks about our journey to becoming a truly digital University, and how modernising IT can support us.<\/p>\n
All organisations, regardless of type or size, will over the course of the next decade increasingly see both their core and supporting activities entwined with digital technologies.<\/p>\n
In the higher education sector we\u2019re seeing an upwards trend in the use of digital teaching interventions \u2013 to better support learning and to help students develop the skills and experience to use and exploit digital technologies in their chosen field of study and future work.<\/p>\n
In research, all disciplines are seeking opportunities to exploit digital technology. From the ideation stage using collaborative tools to share and expand thinking, through to the increased use of digital tools to manage and understand data. And then further to analyse and create digital perspectives on research outcomes.<\/p>\n
Digital technology is changing higher education \u2013 there is no question \u2013 but by how much, and when? Our students are the \u2018digital engine room\u2019 for the future, and part of our role as educators is to ready them to have the greatest impact on all parts of society. Increasingly this will be through digital creation and innovation. We also have a role to identify where the use of digitisation and digital transformation can help the wider University.<\/p>\n
Investing in the digital future<\/strong> As part of the University\u2019s strategic plan, there are activities underway to help us collectively respond to digital opportunities.<\/p>\n Guided by the University\u2019s new vision and strategic plan<\/a>, and in collaboration with others across the University, the Directorate of IT Services is working to enhance digital capabilities by providing the technology to help our staff and students to innovate across all aspects of our University. This is where the idea of federated delivery comes in. In some instances big central standardised solutions will be the best mode to deliver, but in others it will be about giving staff and students the toolsets and consultative support to do it themselves \u2013 creativity will come from us all.<\/p>\n Modernising IT<\/strong> On modernising IT we are we are now in the implementation and delivery stage of our journey, with key pieces of work \u2013 themed under technology, operations and organisation \u2013 progressing at pace.<\/p>\n Technology enhancements include faster, more reliable network coverage across campus and improved connectivity \u2013 put simply, we\u2019re taking a \u2018wireless first, always on\u2019 approach to network modernisation<\/a>.<\/p>\n Anytime, anywhere<\/strong> And with the introduction of Power BI<\/a>, our new analytics platform, we have an opportunity to be more data-driven than ever \u2013 particularly as we work to define how digital can best serve the future needs of our University.<\/p>\n Our future is digital and the journey has begun.<\/p>\n Malcolm Whitehouse, Chief Information Officer, IT Services.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=”3.17.6″ prev_text=”Previous” next_text=”Next” in_same_term=”off” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=”3.17.6″ custom_button=”on” button_text_color=”#ffffff” locked=”on” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Related posts” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ locked=”on”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=”Subscribe” _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”et_pb_widget_area_3″ locked=”on” \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=”3.17.6″ area=”sidebar-1″ show_border=”off” locked=”on” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the higher education sector we\u2019re seeing an upwards trend in the use of digital teaching interventions \u2013 to better support learning and to help students develop the skills and experience to use and exploit digital technologies in their chosen field of study and future work. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":3195,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":" [et_pb_section bb_built=\"1\" fullwidth=\"off\" specialty=\"on\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"][et_pb_column type=\"2_3\" specialty_columns=\"4\"][et_pb_row_inner admin_label=\"Row\"][et_pb_column_inner type=\"4_4\" saved_specialty_column_type=\"2_3\"][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" featured_placement=\"above\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=\"3.17.6\"]<\/p> When I\u2019m out and about meeting staff I hear much debate about the why, what, when and how of change in our University. I wanted to share my thoughts on this often contentious topic \u2013 and hear your views too.<\/p> Early in 2020 we will launch our University\u2019s new vision and strategic plan \u2013 Our future. In order to fulfil Our future we need to ensure that we are in a financially sustainable position so that we have the funds to invest in the new staff, facilities and infrastructure which will be needed to bring our plans to life.<\/p> Our Financial Statements<\/a> for 2018\/19, which have been published following approval by the Board of Governors, confirm that more than 95% of our \u00a31.1bn income is spent on our core goals - on our staff and our students - to deliver research, education and social responsibility; with the remainder invested in the long term sustainability of our University. You can find a summary<\/a> of the Financial Statements on StaffNet.<\/p> However, this is a testing time for UK universities, due to the many external factors that have an impact on us - current home tuition fees are falling in real terms, whilst our costs (not just pay but non-pay too) are increasing. There are further and even greater tuition fee funding risks outlined in General Election manifestos as well as a range of Brexit-related risks that could affect our operations. The Office for Students (OfS) demands that we demonstrate both value for money for our students and our financial sustainability (in the sense of being able to invest to deliver our ambitious strategy, rather than survival). There are, of course, also ongoing unresolved national issues around pay and the continuing challenges around funding pensions in the higher education sector.<\/p> Our Financial Statements show an improved operating surplus (3.7% of income compared to \u00a324.7m (2.3%) in 2017\/18), with a rise in income from tuition fees, education contracts and research. As I mentioned earlier, we re-invest the surplus we achieve each year in activity in line with our strategy. Recently our funds have been used to create some new academic and Professional Services posts; to invest in key infrastructure including IT; to invest in some new buildings like our student accommodation at Unsworth Park; to improve the student experience by funding more full-time Residential Life staff and to upgrade a range of buildings and research and teaching spaces and resources. Increasingly it is also invested in environmental sustainability and meeting our ambitious carbon targets. So even when we are making difficult decisions in some parts of the University we continue to invest our surplus.<\/p> Whilst we have reported an operating surplus, our Board of Governors expects us to deliver a much larger surplus than this (at least 5%) if we are to be sustainable in the long-term. Our strategic change programme (including IT Modernisation<\/a>, the Student Experience Programme<\/a>, and the Research Lifecycle Programme<\/a>), alongside our continuous improvement plans, will ensure that we create the financial headroom to invest in people and facilities. The strategic change programme will also enable us to embrace new technologies and new ways of doing things that better support all our staff and students to be the best that they can be.<\/p> Yes, this means that some individual roles will change. New roles (some that we haven\u2019t yet identified) will be created and some roles will no longer be required. I appreciate that this will cause some uncertainty and where that is the case we will do everything we can to support staff, but the alternative is that we never change anything. If we fail to take advantage of advances in technology and develop more joined-up ways of working we will ultimately find ourselves outdated in the eyes of future students, funders and other stakeholders. Staff want to work for a progressive and successful institution, of which they can be proud. This means we cannot stand still.<\/p> When I talk to staff and students I often hear their frustrations about how difficult it be can be to get some straightforward things done, grappling with paper-based, manual and repetitive processes, on outdated systems and infrastructure, all of which serves to increase staff workloads. Everyone wants to do a good job, but regularly feel that our world-class status is earned in spite of our internal systems and processes, not because of them.<\/p> To deliver our new vision and strategic plan we will need to embrace new opportunities and face challenges with courage and determination. That will sometimes mean we have to make tough decisions and no-one is claiming it will be easy or that mistakes will not be made along the way. But where we do have tough choices to make we will commit to implementing changes fairly and with compassion to support the wellbeing of all our colleagues.<\/p> [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_post_nav _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" prev_text=\"Previous\" next_text=\"Next\" in_same_term=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_comments _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" custom_button=\"on\" button_text_color=\"#ffffff\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_text admin_label=\"Related posts\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" locked=\"on\"]<\/p> [related-posts-thumbnails]<\/p> [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column_inner][\/et_pb_row_inner][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=\"1_3\"][et_pb_sidebar admin_label=\"Subscribe\" _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"et_pb_widget_area_3\" locked=\"on\" \/][et_pb_sidebar _builder_version=\"3.17.6\" area=\"sidebar-1\" show_border=\"off\" locked=\"on\" \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>","_et_gb_content_width":"","_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pslt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3159"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3159\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3215,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3159\/revisions\/3215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.manchester.ac.uk\/viewpoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Of course, our University is already on a journey and to date has invested in digital capabilities across the institution \u2013 largely in quite traditional ways such as websites, content publishing, and basic transactional facilities. Digital technologies are in play across many elements of teaching and learning too \u2013 virtual learning environments, collaborative capabilities, digital learning support and using new digital methods in delivering research support.<\/p>\n\n
IT Services is transforming the way in which we will respond to these challenges through a combination of modernising IT<\/a> and being a key enabler to strategic change programmes: the Student Experience Programme (SEP)<\/a>, the Research Lifecycle Programme (RLP)<\/a>, and supporting the delivery of the Manchester Engineering Campus Development (MECD)<\/a>. The core infrastructure platforms that these programmes of work will provide are a necessary first step in supporting the University to become truly digital in the future.<\/p>\n
Most staff and postgraduate research students have upgraded to Windows 10<\/a>, a pre-requisite to the introduction of Office 365<\/a> which will provide a core set of tools to enable \u2018anytime, anywhere, on any device\u2019 working. There\u2019ll also be OneDrive for cloud-based file storage, and Teams for collaboration, which coupled with technologies such as Microsoft Azure Artificial Intelligence and Microsoft PowerApps, will be immensely powerful.<\/p>\nRelated<\/h1>\n
Related posts:<\/h3>
Patrick Hackett: Introductory message<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
Patrick Hackett: An update on the Student Experience Programme<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a>
Patrick Hackett: Working smarter and living better - a hybrid future update<\/h2><\/div><\/div><\/a><\/div>
Improving our financial performance will help to deliver our ambitious future plans, but we must also increase our capacity to create the funds and time to invest in our core goals. One of the ways we can do this is by changing what we do and how we do things.<\/p>Related<\/h1>