JISC

For the second consecutive year, funding is the top concern of UK further and higher education’s IT and computing service directors. This is according to the Top Concerns survey published this week by the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA).

UCISA’s Top Ten Concerns 2008-2009Dr Malcolm Read, JISC's executive secretary, welcomes this chance to raise awareness of UCISA's key concerns, for they reflect areas in which JISC is already active.

1.  Funding and sustainable resourcing of IT
2.  IT strategy and planning
2.  Organisational change and process improvement
4.  Business systems to support the institution
5.  'Environmentally friendly' computing and energy efficiency
6.  IT/IS service quality
6.  Service availability and resilience
8.  Governance of IT
9.  E-learning
10. The development of an architected, enterprise-wide IT Infrastructure

Dr Malcolm Read, executive secretary of JISC, was not surprised but encouraged by these results, welcoming this chance to raise awareness of its key concerns. He said: 'JISC is already very active in all of these spheres, particularly in terms of fostering organisational change, providing leadership in the strategic planning of IT resources, and in pioneering the energy-efficient use of technology - JISC has just published its report on Green ICT, for example. The improved JANET network continues to provide a resilient service both within and across institutions, and JISC's repositories, digitised resources and research into virtual learning and research environments (VLEs and VREs) are helping the UK move towards its goal of enabling world-class - and world-leading - online education and research.'     

In terms of IT Governance, JISC InfoNet exists to provide advice, publications and infoKits to promote the effective management of IT, whilst Procureweb provides free advice to help anyone involved in purchasing IT resources get the very best value for money for their institution.  

In late March, coinciding with the JISC Annual Conference on 24 March, a JISC co-funded Guardian supplement will explore the current concerns of IT directors, generating debate on what is being and could usefully be done to respond to the challenges outlined above.