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Jisc releases pivotal toolkit to guide higher education towards digital transformation

We've released a trio of resources to help universities make strategic moves towards a digital future.

Recognising the essential role of technology in education, Jisc, has released three new resources to support universities in taking a holistic approach to digital transformation, and will work with institutions to pilot them.

Along with the framework for digital transformation in higher education, which was published earlier this year, universities now have access to a digital transformation in higher education guide, which contains a digital maturity model, action plan, and roadmap.

The resources were developed with support, input, and feedback from a 200-strong sector-led working group as well as a host of sector bodies. These included:

Digital transformation in higher education guide

The guide shares how universities can review and implement digital transformation across the organisation, comprehensively covering all aspects of the university, including digital and physical infrastructure, effective digital leadership, organisational culture, research and the student and staff experience.

Digital maturity model

The maturity model uses the framework structure to illustrate different levels of digital maturity for each area of activity and across all aspects of business. The model describes sector benchmarks and helps organisations identify their own baselines from which to move forward.

Maturity model for digital transformation – action plan and roadmap

The action plan provides a practical template for organisations to produce detailed actionable plans to enhance their digital maturity. It prompts reflection on current maturity levels to identify actions, KPIs (key performance indicators), investment needed, responsible owners, relevant stakeholders, supporting resources and documents, and assign priority levels.

The template is a companion document to the maturity model and can be used at an organisation-wide level to produce a roadmap, as well as at the faculty, school or department level. The process of creating action plans can inform or feed into the development of a digital transformation strategy or help to review and adjust an existing strategy. This process can also be used to consider digital aspects of all existing organisational strategies.

Writing in the guide, Professor Raheel Nawaz, who is pro-vice-chancellor for digital transformation at Staffordshire University, said:

“Effective digital transformation is a difficult problem to crack in any sector and HE is a couple of steps behind others.

“While everyone acknowledges the need, there’s a lack of understanding about how best to move forward. Jisc’s work in this area will be instrumental in enabling all HEIs (higher education institutions) to create their own digital transformation frameworks and strategies that balance pragmatism with innovation and ambition.“


Sarah Knight, Jisc’s head of learning and teaching transformation for higher education, said:

“Strategically embracing technology across universities is necessary for their enduring success. Digital transformation is a game-changing investment, addressing major challenges by making education flexible for everyone, optimising efficiency, fortifying resilience during disruptions, and even reducing environmental impact.

“Fundamentally though, at its core digital transformation is about using technology to better meet the needs of students and staff, prioritising the people making use of innovative advancements."

Jisc will take a collaborative and tailored approach to supporting the unique requirements of each university, by learning how organisations use the guide as well as other models and approaches, refining support offered, and sharing lessons learned across the sector.

Sarah added:

“Successful digital transformation requires effective leadership, suitable investment, robust and secure infrastructure, engaged stakeholders and digitally capable staff and students.

“These are all considerable challenges to tackle, but Jisc and our partner bodies are here to work with the sector along the way. We are confident these resources, along with dedicated support and sector collaboration, will ensure higher education's readiness for a digital future.”

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