City University London has the ambition to be a leading global university and is investing heavily in academic staff, IT and its estate. This presentation will start with a discussion of some of the major sectoral trends in IT supply and demand with a focus on education. The IT service at City in 2010/11 and today will be described, along with discussion of the journey and some of the challenges faced. Particular attention will be paid to a move from a devolved 'cottage industry' approach to a more centralised and commoditised but flexible approach to IT service; changing student expectations and aligning with the University’s Strategic Plan. The presentation will conclude with some observations on this transition for both academic staff and IT professional staff.

1. Academic excellence for business and the professions
Aligning IT and University Strategy
Professor Paul Curran
Vice-Chancellor
11th March 2014

2. Introduction
• Staff & students‟ needs and competencies (demand) & IT
capability (supply) are changing rapidly
• Major implications for HEIs‟ research, enterprise, education &
support of all three
• Here I will focus on education:
IT for the delivery & support of education
our experience at City
some challenges

3. IT for delivery and support of education: some demand
trends relevant to City
1. Humanising HE
2. Enhancing education experience
3. Engendering community spirit

4. 1. Humanising HE
“To improve our educational establishments, we have to humanise
them and make education personal to every student and lecturer in
the system. Education is always about relationships. Great lecturers
are not just instructors and test administrators: they are mentors,
coaches, motivators and lifelong sources of inspiration to their
students.”
Professor Sir Ken Robinson
TED Talks Education Conference, 7th May 2013

5. • Some universities are meeting this challenge by exploiting IT
• Most City University London students possess an internet-enabled
device and want to use it
• With high speed broadband, such devices extend the reach of HE
& increase access to learning resources

6. 2. Enhancing education experience
• Around half of our students are from outside the UK
• The “Flipped Classroom” if used well can enhance the educational
experience
• Academics can prepare lectures in advance & stream online
• Students can watch the lecture repeatedly (any time any place) at
a pace & on a device of their choice
• Academics can use their time to focus on mentoring, coaching &
motivating through onsite tutorials

7. 3. Engendering community spirit
• We have a very fragmented academic staff & student community
• Net generation students are „digital natives‟, experienced multi-
taskers & comfortable interacting online
• Staff & students need to work collaboratively, moving effortlessly
and together between physical & virtual worlds
• Social media together with the VLE, self-service applications and
BYOD have a role in providing flexible, inspiring learning spaces

8. IT for delivery and support of education: some supply
trends
1. Outsourced infrastructure
2. Commoditised components
3. Ubiquitous wi-fi

9. Our recent experience at City
1. What are we trying to achieve?
2. Then: 2010/11
3. Organisation of IT change process
4. IT & its alignment with the Strategic Plan
5. Now: 2013/14
6. The future

10. 1. What are we trying to achieve?
• City University London aspires to be „a leading global University
ranked within the top 2% of universities in the world by 2016‟ & is
investing around £200M quickly in people, IT & its estate
• To achieve the educational aspects of the Strategic Plan, we
needed to create a „sector leading‟ IT experience in key areas
(sector average in others)
• Part of this will be delivered by exploiting the potential of IT

11. 2. Then: 2010/11
• IT Services: £14.6M budget, 142 FTE staff
• Governance of projects weak & poorly-linked to Strategic Plan
• IT infrastructure predominantly insourced & needed updating
• Technology in education of average technical capability with
inadequate speed & functionality
• No clearly-defined standard (consistency & quality) for
equipment in learning spaces: poor condition / design of PC labs
• Core business processes sub-optimal: overly complex
application architecture
• Devolved ‘cottage industry make’ approach rather than
centralised & „commoditised buy‟ approach
• Notwithstanding pockets of excellence, the overall perception of
IT Services : reactive, lacking excellent customer service, poor at
completion & lacking agility

12. 3. Organisation of IT change process
Governance structures were developed with IT making major
contributions to Strategic Plan implementation „work streams‟, each
led by a member of the University Executive Team:
ENHANCING OUR CULTURE TO
DELIVER
ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE
SUCCEEDING WITH
STUDENTS
SUCCEEDING WITH
RESEARCH AND ENTERPRISE
• Recruitment
• Performance management
• Development
• Academic staff experience
• Educational success
• Student experience
• Student recruitment
• Student journey
• Quality
• Impact
• Quantity

13. 4. IT & its alignment with the Strategic Plan: Phase
one
• Engage IT Services closely with all of City so it is better able to
provide services that support the Strategic Plan
• An efficiency programme to unify & simplify core business
processes
• Rationalise applications
• Add an infrastructure of leading technologies: Moodle (enhance
learning environment), Office 365 (strengthen collaboration),
Sharepoint (personalise education) - quickly
• Reorganise around a „one City‟ shared internal service model

14. 4. IT and its alignment with the Strategic Plan: Phase
two
• Source commodity IT (e.g., platform hosting, finance & HR
systems) through third parties
• The skills of IT staff significantly enhanced to provide the
capability to develop unique services that directly enhance
education & research (VLE, portal, audio/visual)
• Stabilise & improve infrastructure, implement sector-leading
devices in education & significantly improve service to students

15. 5. Now: 2013/14 - conceptually
• IT Services: £12.1M budget, 135 FTE staff (more junior mix)
• Strong project governance with priorities set by Strategic Plan
• Modern outsourced IT infrastructure
• Sector leading IT in key areas of education: fast & functional
• Standard equipment in educational spaces: consistent & high
quality
• Standardised & simplified core business processes, supported
by commodity components
• Centralised and ‘commoditised buy’ approach within a „One
City‟ internal shared service model
• Perception of IT Services as proactive, agile & student &
academic staff focussed (SU award for improvements to services
for students)

16. 5. Now: 2013/14 – infrastructure examples
• Transfer of some systems to (external) shared service data
centre: saving £3.5M over 10 years.
• Reduction of 9% in annual cost of IT hardware.
• Significant improvements in wi-fi provision
• Improved resilience, backup &recovery leading to fewer
interruptions to core business activities
• Establishment of 24 * 365 Service Desk
• Implementation of Eduroam wireless network (allowing staff to
access services at universities around the world)
• Replacement of email & calendar system with Office 365 –
delivering 25Gb of mail storage space to staff & students.

17. 5. Now: 2013/14 - education examples
• Stabilisation of Online Registration system
• Upgrade of over 1,600 student lab PCs with improved memory
• Implementation of Echo 360 lecture capture
• Enhanced look, feel & functionality of Moodle
• Implemented system to manage Moodle digital assets
• Implementation of a university-wide module evaluation system to
collect student feedback and produce management reports

20. 6. The future
• Increased commoditisation will present more opportunities for
gradual outsourcing & reducing IT staff numbers
• Commodity IT sourced through third parties
• Unified core processes for all administration
• Increased & improved provision of education online: student
access through own devices
• „Big Data‟ analysis to assess student progress & to provide
individual course pathways
• Enhanced IT staff skills to purchase & integrate components &
deliver differentiated services
• IT staff roles will morph from technical to hybrid: technical core
with business analysis & relationship management

21. Some challenges: for staff
Changing skills for academic staff
• Integrating technical & pedagogic skills
• Changing the way we educate
• Becoming as adept at working within the virtual world as the
physical world
• Mastering the skills of our Net generation students
• Training
Changing skills for IT staff
• Relationship management – both supplier & student
• Systems integration more relevant than application development &
maintenance
• Training

22. Some challenges: for IT Services

23. Conclusion
General
• Strong trends in student demand & IT supply
• Challenges for both IT staff & academic staff
• Meeting them is essential for student & academic staff satisfaction
At City
• Devolved IT became „One City‟ IT
• System downtime reduced
• IT staffing costs reduced by £1.2M
• Non-staff costs reduced by £1.3M
• NSS scores for IT increased by 5% so far
• In a nutshell: at City we stabilised and improved service, reduced
IT staff and non-staff IT costs and satisfied our students
• But there is much more to do