JISC

What do we mean by e-business, and why is it relevant to the strategic management of universities and colleges?

JISC’s first ever e-book The e-Revolution and Post-Compulsory Education: Using e-Business Models to deliver Quality Education published online earlier this year is now being updated with seven fresh articles on how new and emerging technology is changing education management.

The JISC-commissioned articles are aimed at those in education responsible for institutional strategies and explore issues around cloud computing, social networking and business and community engagement.

The project is a strand of JISC’s organizational support programme, which aims to provide world class support to universities and colleges’ management, business processes and information systems, and to the individuals that work and study within them.

Myles Danson, programme manager at JISC, said: "This new series of articles reflects the challenging new landscape universities and colleges currently find themselves in. The articles explore ways in which technology can support strategic solutions to managing institutional change.” 

“The new pieces have been published on the e-Revolution blog to encourage discussion and debate about the issues facing institutions in the current climate," he added.

Jos Boys, editor of the book and the e-Revolution blog which hosts the articles, said: “The best practices of e-business are revolutionising not just technology itself, but the whole process through which services are provided.

The authors explore examples of where technologies have led innovation or have enhanced services to create new learning spaces and opportunities for collaboration. “As one would expect, there have been areas where the book failed to predict just how profound this shifting of boundaries has been, or where impacts have been different or stronger than assumed, so the new articles set out to address this changing landscape.”

Experts have provided food for thought on how new technologies are pushing and shifting the boundaries in education, enabling institutions to rethink their learning, teaching and administrative systems and strategies in a more holistic way.

The authors explore examples of where technologies have led innovation or have enhanced services to create new learning spaces and opportunities for collaboration.

One of the key debates in the articles is whether institutions think of students as customers, consumers or members, and how universities and colleges can effectively manage their relationships with other key stakeholders, particularly in the services they provide.  This topic also featured in the session Do institutions need customers? at this year’s JISC Conference.  A write-up of the conference session is available on the JISC BCE blog

View and comment on the new articles and other case studies on the blog