JISC

This project has been developed to build on the success of the original BCE A&E project, Business and Community Engagement: Awareness and Education for the Wider JISC Community which took place between September 2008 and July 2010.

The role of original project was to raise awareness, amongst the wider JISC community, of the importance of BCE to their institutions, the potential impact on their own roles of increasingly strategic approaches towards external engagement and the support and resources emerging from the JISC BCE programme itself.

The original project audience was determined to be support and enabling functions and services within UK HE and FE institutions – along with the JISC Advance Advisory Services and RSC's who provide the vital interface between JISC programmes and the wider community.

The original project identified a clear need for closer understanding and involvement of the staff and organisations from its audience by (and with) those seeking to realise the benefits of their institutional external engagement strategy. Increased external engagement by universities and colleges can present significant challenges (real or perceived) on the support and enabling functions and services at the heart of their operations. The solutions are often as diverse as the difficulties; however common elements involving closer collaboration, communication of strategy, adaptive and innovative use of technology and identification of mutual benefits typically emerge.

There are now numerous examples of improved practice and process, which have been derived from the solutions created to address the issues arising from increased focus on external engagement. By exploring these challenges and the responses to them, the A&E project found the most successful engagement strategies are backed up by cross-disciplinary approaches to support and service delivery.

Some of the key issues identified included: information resource management, systems access and development, relationship management practices, internal strategic engagement and professional development for staff.