JISC

The study was undertaken for the JISC Organisational Support committee, during the period May 2005 – June 2006. The report provides a summary of the policy and planning context in the sector, a ‘map’ of current practice, consideration of the emerging key issues and critical success factors in strategic planning related to ICT and a number of conclusions and recommendations to the JISC.

Executive summary

Contextual issues

The context and environment within which institutional policy and planning take place is dynamic and often challenging. Broad contextual issues arising from the research that have had or are likely to have particular importance for or impact on ICT related strategic development in the higher and further education sector, include:

• Students, teaching and learning related dimensions
• Collaboration aspects 
• Widening participation and lifelong learning
• Government and funding priorities

In addition, a number of specific sectoral strategic initiatives have been highly influential, including:

• HEFCE arrangements for receiving planning information from higher education institutions
• Targeted funding initiatives and allocations including E-learning capital investment funding; widening participation allocations to HE and FE colleges; Capital Funding for Learning and Teaching and IT Infrastructure; the Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund (TQEF); and the Science Research Investment Fund (SRIF) 
• HEFCE e-learning strategy
• Leadership and management initiatives in the sector 
• JISC guidelines for developing Information Strategies 
• Information and Learning Technology Strategies in further education

Map of current practice in strategic planning for ICT

Institutional approaches to planning for ICT are considered in relation to: 

• The main purposes and aims of strategic planning in ICT related areas 
• The strategic planning process 
• The role of strategy champions
• Integration of ICT planning with other strategic processes

The Study concludes that strategic planning practices in ICT related areas are diverse, particularly in higher education, and are apparently under almost continuous review as factors such as technology change and pedagogical developments present new and different challenges. While the Information Strategy had a powerful influence on practice in higher education, the interpretation of the concept (for instance, a greater or lesser focus on technology) differed widely. In further education, the Information and Learning Technology Strategy concept had more prescriptive origins and tended to produce greater uniformity in practice. More recently, increasing emphasis appears to be placed upon developing e-learning strategies.

It is noted that most of the institutional documents examined in this study, and the descriptions of current planning practice that form the basis for case illustrations, are either the product of past planning activities or are practices under current review. Reflecting on the content of many strategies, therefore, is effectively looking backwards to situations and practice of – in many cases - at least two or three years ago.

The report presents typologies of current strategic and planning documents related to ICT applications in HE and in FE. Three levels of strategy documents are described as an indication of the level of integration up the corporate planning process, characterised by, e.g., the responsible committee(s) having high-level representation from all institutional stakeholders and/or the management level at which final approval of the strategy is given. The typology reveals that the balance of practice appears to be moving towards cutting out the ‘middle bits’: corporate planning documents are increasingly including strategic directions for ICT investment and these are then translated into investment programme and implementation plans. Whether the ‘separate’ ICT strategy in its previous form will continue to play a role is difficult to predict in this transitional period, but some doubt is justified.

Key issues and critical success factors

The nature of ICT

The technologies themselves have become ubiquitous and reach all parts of institutional business. It is relatively common across the sector for managers to think in terms of ‘information’ and ‘knowledge’, not IT or ICT, which suggests quite strongly that the (information) resources, processes and products - rather than the technology and systems – need to be the object of strategy formulation and implementation.

The pervasiveness of ICT in the business of education presents both a threat and an opportunity to most institutions. From a business perspective, ICT can be a product differentiator for universities and colleges – providing a better service to customers and a better learning experience through the pervasive and innovative use of ICT may provide the differentiation required to stay ahead of the competition in the short term. From a planning and management perspective, its pervasiveness makes control of the pace of change and development across the institution increasingly difficult.

A paradigm shift in thinking about ICT could encourage building ICT and its applications into strategic planning as a utility, which might allow a greater focus within institutions on the creative ‘what’ and ‘to whom’ issues, rather than on the technology and delivery mechanisms. Unlike many other utilities, however, ICT is extremely dynamic – the speed of technology change encourages an already strong tendency to short-termism in strategic planning in higher and further education institutions, and is often used to justify already risk averse and conservative decision-making culture, with institutions not wanting to try out ‘untested’ technology.

The management of change

Substantial investment in ICT inevitably creates major change. While the investment in technologies is the precondition to making change, it is clearly the effective integration of these technologies with other institutional systems and processes that makes managed change possible and where the real value of the investment can be harvested. Despite the Information and ILT strategy initiatives in higher and further education, IT integration often seems to be understood too narrowly as referring to technical or systems integration.

Knowledge, skills and attitudes

The question arises, how much does ‘the institutional business’ need to know about ICT, or, indeed, any other particularly technical issues that must be planned strategically, such as estates and facilities? It can be argued that, as ICT now drives or underpins all fundamental change in institutions, strategic planning in relation to ICT demands a higher level of knowledge, awareness and engagement at senior management levels.

Planning for and management of increasingly complex and pervasive ICT also would benefit from improved leadership and strategic management skills amongst senior and middle managers. In particular, it seems that IT and other specialist staff are not only disadvantaged by not having a seat at the top decision-making table(s) but they also frequently lack the political, negotiation and influencing skills that would help them to communicate, advocate and lobby more effectively.

External and environmental influences

The pace and range of technology change in ICT has a large – and usually negative - impact on strategic planning and the transfer of plans into practice. It may be necessary to develop new ways of looking at and addressing ICT in strategic planning, starting from the assumption that nothing may look the same in two or three years.

Strategising in relation to ICT is also strongly influenced by (and normally aligned to) the institution’s corporate goals and strategies, and external factors (political, social, economic) often dictate change in organisational goals and resources. A wide range of current and forthcoming government and European legislation and regulations has significant impact on corporate strategies in higher and further education in general, and on ICT-related planning in particular.

Conclusions and recommendations

There are three inter-related conclusions arising from this study, associated with:

• Integrating ICT more effectively into corporate planning - new planning tools and guidelines could help to promote better understanding of the governance issues and integration of ICT activities into corporate planning
• The role of the JISC in promoting this integration and improving practice: the JISC needs to be more effective at advocating ICT integration into corporate planning and promoting good practice in planning for ICT among senior managers. It might commission, in the first instance, a ‘stakeholder analysis’ to identify current perspectives on ICT issues, the JISC’s role and services and communication issues among senior managers
• Improving skills, knowledge and awareness related to planning for ICT: further work is required, on the one hand, to identify what senior institutional managers need to know and understand about ICT trends and developments in order to lead and manage change, and on the other hand, what behavioural competencies and influencing skills might assist IT and ICT specialist managers and staff to be more effective as strategy champions.  

Report available electronically only. Read the full report below.