Our public affairs work
Helping to shape national policy and advocate for our members' needs.
What we do
Jisc's public affairs team helps advocate for our member’s needs in national policy development and build influential relationships with ministers, civil servants and parliamentarians.
We engage in policy debate around the future of the higher, further education and research sectors to highlight where digital technology can make a real difference.
The team works with Jisc experts to shape policy and respond to the most important consultations. We also collaborate with major stakeholder bodies on issues of mutual interest from data poverty to reform of the further education sector.
Advocacy
As part of our policy partnership and commissions work, we support:
Digital poverty campaign
When universities and colleges had to close their sites during coronavirus lockdowns, many students couldn’t access reliable connectivity - so couldn’t access education.
Learners struggled to cover the costs of the mobile phone data they needed to complete their coursework remotely, faced unreliable wifi, or had to battle housemates and family members over bandwidth.
Our student digital insights survey found that 62% of students in higher education (HE) and 36% in further education (FE) experience poor wifi connection, and 22% in HE and 15% in FE struggle with mobile data costs when learning online.
Working with our sector partners, we’ve campaigned to raise awareness and find a solution. We’ve had some real success since our initial call to government in April 2020.
Digital poverty activity since April 2020
- 23 April 2020 - we came together with the AoC, UUK, and Ucisa to ask DCMS and OFCOM to zero-rate educational websites
- 27 May 2020 - Scottish government minister Richard Lochhead MSP wrote in TES in support of Jisc’s call to make education websites free to access for students. Shortly after this, the Scottish Funding Council announced a new £5m fund to tackle digital exclusion among disadvantaged students
- 19 January 2021 - Jisc (with UUK, Ucisa and Guild HE) wrote to the education secretary to highlight that HE learners were still lacking in quality/cost effective connectivity despite government interventions and the efforts of members
- 19 May 2021- Jisc’s public affairs team collaborated with the Department of Education on an engagement plan that saw the universities minister write to 71 English local authorities asking them to enable eduroam on their govroam network. Jisc’s CEO wrote to the Local Government Association’s CEO to back the minister's efforts
We have also provided help with connectivity issues by providing students and learning providers with edubox. Find out more in the edubox information paper (pdf).
Position papers
- Accessibility policy position paper - levelling up digital equality (pdf) - February 2021
- Apprenticeships - public affairs position paper (pdf) - February 2021
Consultations and submissions
Written evidence submitted recently by Jisc includes:
2022 - written evidence submitted by Jisc
2021 - written evidence submitted by Jisc
- UPP Foundation’s Student Futures Commission (pdf), July 2021
- Jisc’s response to Higher Education Commission’s inquiry into research funding and alleviating regional economic inequality (pdf), July 2021
- Inquiry into UK-EU Trade and Cooperation agreement, future UK-EU relations: trade in services (pdf), Feb 2021
2020 - written evidence submitted by Jisc
- Jisc's National Data Strategy consultation response (pdf), December 2020
- The impact of COVID-19 on education and children's services, September 2020
2019 - written evidence submitted by Jisc
2018 - written evidence submitted by Jisc
- Education Select Committee’s fourth industrial revolution inquiry, June 2018
- Education Select Committee’s School and college funding inquiry, June 2018
- Education Select Committee’s Quality of apprenticeships and skills training inquiry, January 2018
- Work and Pensions Select Committee’s assistive technology inquiry, January 2018
Government contributions
Our work with government includes contributions to:
- Department for Education's EdTech Strategy - Realising the potential of technology in education
- National government guidance for further education (FE) colleges on COVID-19
Contact us
If you'd like to get involved with our policy work, get in touch with the public affairs team at publicaffairs@jisc.ac.uk.