Annual review 2006
A summary of JISC's work and achievements for the year of 2006.
Foreword
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) continues to change the ways in which we learn, teach and conduct research. Traditional models of scholarship are being transformed, and much of JISC’s work over the past year, as in previous years, has been concerned with ensuring that UK education and research are well placed to harness the opportunities that the new technologies offer.
The year saw the start of JISC’s £81 million Capital Programme. Central to the programme is its support of the objectives of the DfES’s e-learning strategy, the Science and Innovation Investment Framework: 2004-2014, and ‘Reaching Higher’, the Welsh Assembly Government’s strategy for the higher education sector. In supporting these, the programme is investing significantly to enhance the excellence and competitiveness of UK education and research.
The programme’s objectives – the support of e-Science; the continued development of a world-class network infrastructure; a strong commitment to the growth of institutional repositories; the development of collaborative technologies; the support of progression and wider participation through e-learning; and widening access to major scholarly resources – are also, and have been for long, central aims of JISC.
These wider objectives are also reflected in this Annual Review and in the achievements it records. The launch and growing success of Jorum, the national repository for learning and teaching resources, is a sign that repositories can encourage innovative approaches to online content and support a culture of sharing. Likewise, our work in helping to develop virtual research environments reflects a growing awareness that technology can support the establishment of collaborative communities across all disciplines.
Challenges remain, however, and through our revised strategy and through the direction we continue to receive from our committees, we hope to extend our support to institutions in the increasingly important area of e-administration, in their ‘third stream’ activities and in the establishment and development of institutional repositories to help ensure that UK education and research remain among the best in the world.
Dr Malcolm Read, JISC Executive Secretary