From two universities to one digital culture: City St George’s transformation journey

We all know that people need to be at the heart of any digital transformation project – after all, technology alone doesn’t drive transformation. But how do digital culture and engagement develop during a time of change?

Enter City St George’s. Until a year ago, it was two institutions – City, University of London and St George’s University of London. Merged in August 2024, its digital project spans 27,000 students, 5,000 staff, three campuses and a diverse student body where 80% of undergraduate students live at home within London, 70% are students of colour and 30% are overseas students from more than 160 countries.

"The technology matters, so that's why we're working on our ‘IT big six’ of core foundational projects. But it's people that make the transformation happen. You could do all that work with the infrastructure, particularly with our unique situation of being two legacy institutions that have come together, and none of that will be successful if we don't engage people."

—Baba Sheba, professor of digital education and transformation, and director of digital transformation, at City St George's

Professor Susannah Quinsee, City St George’s vice president (digital and student experience), agrees:

"You can have the best technology project ever but it's not going to work if you haven't connected with the people that are going to be using it."

Culture focus

Using our digital transformation toolkit and taking part in our digital transformation research pilot was a key opportunity for the City St George’s team to focus on building the university’s digital culture and engaging the community. The framework provided a structure to help establish the university’s baseline maturity and think about how to take forward digital transformation.

"We definitely felt the core area to focus on was around organisational digital culture."

—Dr Julie Voce, head of digital education and deputy director of learning enhancement and development

The team at City St George’s began with a survey based on the organisational digital culture sub-elements and maturity levels outlined in our maturity model. It was sent to senior leaders across the university’s six schools and professional services, who were asked how mature they felt the institution was in relation to eleven elements of organisational digital culture and how important each element was. Senior colleagues were then invited to a workshop, facilitated by Jisc, to review the survey findings and discuss the university’s digital culture in more detail. The workshop provided an opportunity to share existing work across the eleven elements.

Senior buy-in

"We'd done a lot of work around gathering our coalition of the willing for our stakeholder digital transformation event, which was valuable in bringing everyone onto the same page. The key thing for us has been the involvement of senior leaders, like Susannah and our chief information officer. They guided us, providing senior level buy-in, and ensured that digital transformation was on the agenda of senior leadership meetings. They also ensured that the outputs from the project have fed into that bigger picture, the strategy and the work moving forward around digital transformation. As a result, it's got a much higher profile."

—Dr Julie Voce, head of digital education and deputy director of learning enhancement and development

Four pillars

One of the outcomes was a new lens through which to prioritise areas of transformation: the four pillars. These pillars encompass digital culture and capability; education and the student experience; AI accelerator and change; and research. Each area has priorities. For example, the research pillar is supporting a collaborative approach across the institution. The AI strand is exploring how to integrate AI in a carefully considered and responsible way, along with AI upskilling for students and staff. The education pillar is looking at experimentation and what digital can offer by engaging with technological innovators, academic expertise and leading organisations in industry to rethink the future of learning.

What our pilot revealed is that the lift the university needs in its digital culture will come from strengthening staff and student capabilities and confidence in adopting technological solutions and using digital tools to improve their learning or work.

Supporting staff

"Staff have a range of emotions around this. Some of them are really excited about the possibilities for change, some are not quite sure how to change, some are anxious and some are experiencing all of those emotions."

—Professor Susannah Quinsee, City St George’s vice president (digital and student experience)

City St George’s is focusing on supporting staff with engaging and effective delivery, and understanding what staff need in terms of support to change their curriculum and make delivery more engaging.

Delivery also relates to space, given that City St George’s is a London institution with many commuter students. As Susannah explains:

"When many of our students spend only around 10% of their time on campus, how can we make sure that experience is something that they're really getting the most out of? There's a lot there that we need to do, and staff are really engaged in terms of thinking about what support they need and how we can work together."

Looking forward

The team also has ambitions related to supporting students and staff with confidence around AI literacies and core digital capabilities.

Baba sees the rise of AI – especially the proliferation of AI tutors, AI study buddies and AI collaborators, either embedded within the virtual learning environment or as a standalone tool for students to engage with – as an area that needs attention. He says:

"We’re working with our colleagues in IT on how we can provide a secure institutional AI gateway that will allow people to engage in a safe way, rather than end up in a situation where you have a bunch of shadow AI tools being used across the university."

For Julie, it all comes back to people and their skills:

"I'd like to see digital skills more embedded, and included as part of staff and student inductions. At the moment they are still seen as an add-on. Not everyone measures the digital skills of their workforce and their students. We need to be putting that more front and centre to make sure they have the digital skills and the digital confidence to be able to use digital moving forward. Digital leadership also needs to be embedded throughout an institution. We all have digital in our job titles, so we're seen as the people who lead this but actually it's everyone's responsibility and everyone needs to be important."

Susannah Quinsee’s advice for sector leaders who want to encourage a culture of digital transformation

• Support experimentation and failure. If you've got enthusiastic people – and that includes students – and you can give them some resources and support, let them go and try things. It can often be a challenge in a resource-constrained, regulatory culture and environment, but it’s really important.
• Don’t reinvent the wheel – collaborate. The sector is facing huge and expensive challenges and we need to work together.
• Understand that not changing is not an option. Higher education will be transformed – digital transformation is not going away and no one has nailed it – so how can we as a sector support each other in that change process?

Find out more

Read City St George’s case study and watch the City St George's video case study on YouTube from our digital transformation research pilot.

Listen to our Beyond the Technology: Building a coalition of the willing at City St George’s podcast.