With the ‘Working for a smarter, stronger sector: the 3rd annual Efficiency in HE’ conference only a day away, the Efficiency Exchange asks Professor Martyn C Harrow, chief executive of Jisc, to talk about the importance of efficiency to Jisc.
Efficiency at Jisc’s core
Jisc’s vision is to make the UK the most digitally advanced education and research nation in the world. Over the last couple of years, since the Wilson Review of Jisc, we have changed, and are accelerating the pace to change, going all-out to best serve the higher education, further education and the skills sectors.
Efficiency is in Jisc’s DNA, and at the heart of our new strategic framework. We are confident that we are saving our sectors over £200 million per annum (compared to their achieving the same without us). We will work with sector colleagues to increase that saving to over £300 million as quickly as possible, and soon allow individual institutions to track and optimise their own share of the benefit.
We will add further value by creating the UK’s largest VAT cost-sharing group, ensuring Jisc subscriptions go as far as possible.
Universities UK’s ‘Working for a smarter, stronger sector: the 3rd annual Efficiency in HE’ conference
Jisc is proud to support this event. I hope you can make it along this Thursday to see our chief innovation officer Dr Phil Richards lead a workshop on ‘digital approaches to smarter working’ and meet Patrick Bellis and Rob Bristow on the Jisc stand.
How Jisc drives efficiency:
- Jisc’s network Janet – cheaper, faster, better-connected for research, teaching and enterprise
- Jisc licensing and procurement – harnessing the power of collective purchasing of digital content
- A wide range of advice and guidance services enhancing staff knowledge and skills, and providing tailored support in areas such as shared services and energy efficiency
Efficiency through partnership
Collaboration is at the heart of efficiency. We work with European organisations through Knowledge Exchange, to evaluate areas including the economic value of open data, which is one of Professor Ian Diamond’s new areas of efficiency work.
Together with Universities UK we created the Efficiency Exchange, with funding from Hefce and the Leadership Foundation. The Exchange supports best practise and expertise sharing. Look out for an imminent expansion of the material available on this network and via the Guardian.
Other ways to engage with Jisc, Efficiency Exchange and the efficiency agenda
If you are not able to attend the UUK event, please follow us on Twitter, or sign up to receive our termly online magazine Jisc Inform. And, of course, please check out the Efficiency Exchange regularly for inspiring new ideas to help your organisation make more efficient digital technology choices.
