Facts and figures
Over 18 million people in the UK are served by JISC - people who are working, teaching and learning in the UK’s colleges and universities; museums, libraries and archives; and the Research Councils.
JISC supports them by investing in innovation projects, maintaining the UK's research and education network (JANET), and by providing expert independent advice, guidance and resources to help them make more innovative use of technology.
More specifically, JISC provides: |
High quality resources
Digital technologies are making the world's knowledge more easily accessible, creating 'lecture theatres without walls'. JISC meets this challenge by collecting, creating, procuring and delivering digital information to support learning, teaching and research - such as the whole of Darwin’s library which JISC recently put online with his annotations, so researchers can trace his thoughts. For further information on how JISC helps institutions save money on content licenses and supports them in making the right decisions about which ones to acquire, read about JISC Collections.
Creation and preservation of digital preservation
Digital information now forms a significant and growing part of the UK's cultural and intellectual heritage. JISC recognises the urgent need to protect this material for the benefit of generations to come. It is providing coordination and leadership for digital preservation activities and fostering collaboration between the further and higher education and research sectors. For example, JISC funds the Digital Preservation Coalition, a group of 19 organisations brought together to form a long-term strategy for the preservation of digital materials.
Implications of using technology
The speed of change across the post-16 education sector is driven by the electronic revolution. Institutions riding the crest of change are propelled ahead, while those still seeking to embrace the new opportunities are being left behind in the wake of progress. In addition, the increasing legal requirements on institutions means that the advice and support they require needs to be up-to-date, practical and timely.
With a vision for supporting institutions faced by these growing requirements, JISC is helping institutions meet these challenges through the support and expertise offered from its hands on advisory services under JISC Advance. In 2008/09, JISC Advance delivered savings of £41.5m on an investment of £3.4m for UK education
Regional Support Centres
Located around the UK Regional Support Centres (RSCs) help the further education community take full advantage of JISC's services. Their key aims are to connect the FE sector with the JANET network, provide ongoing technical support and encourage the take-up of technology-enabled teaching and learning. RSCs organise a full programme of events, publish support materials and work closely with colleges to support their needs.
Through the Excellence Gateway the RSCs also run a central bank of case studies showing good practice in the further education and skill sector.
The network
By continually embracing advances in technology JISC seeks to seize new opportunities to improve access to the broadening range of information resources. Part of this strategy is to provide UK colleges and universities with an innovative and stable infrastructure today that is capable of delivering world-class services for tomorrow. In 2011 the UK's education and research network JANET became the first network in the world to run at a speed of 100 g/bits/sec, the equivalent of uploading 125 doctoral theses in just one second.
Development activities
In the move to support students more efficiently throughout a lifetime of learning, JISC is spearheading innovation through various programmes of work. Achieving this vision requires a paradigm shift where the student and not the physical institution is the centre of focus. Since 2000, JISC has funded over 1,000 innovation projects across over 200 universities and colleges. One solution is the Managed Learning Environment, a system that supports learning by bringing together and coordinating a range of different systems such as virtual learning environments and processes like student registration. JISC is working closely with institutions to introduce these systems, and to support senior managers with running them.
In addition, JISC is working to make sure that as the number of online resources grows, individuals and institutions can access those resources in rich and innovative ways. These mechanisms include: resource discovery services which allow users to find high-quality services; fusion services which collect content from a variety of sources; shared services, such as user profiling, authentication and customisation services; and disclosure services that allow institutions to share information and resources.
By investing strategically in research and development within the sector, JISC is able to take risks on behalf of the sector, especially important at times when individual institutions are likely to be taking a more cautious approach. For example, in 2009 a JISC report concluded that there was no need for a single cloud computing service for research.
Funding
JISC is funded by the higher education funding councils of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and the research councils.
Other resources
Other resources about JISC's activities you may find helpful: