Minutes of the Meeting of the Information Strategy Committee held on

 

 

Present:        

Professor Keith Phillips (Chair)

Dr Martin Doherty                   

Mrs Carole Mainstone

Ms Penelope McNeile Dr Mark Patton

Mr John Salmon

Mr Peter Urwin                       

Professor Stephen Winter       

Ms Kate Pattison (Secretary)

 

 

Dr David Alston, Mrs Caroline Armstrong-James, Mr Larry Bunt, Mrs Alison Carter, Ms Suzanne Enright, Ms Evelyne Green, Mr Philip Harding, Mr Vassilis Konstantinou, Dr Ann Rumpus,Professor Gunter Saunders, Mrs Dianna Widdis

14.1          Membership

The Chair welcomed Sangita Monani and Paul Beck who were in attendance at the meeting.  He also welcomed Mark Patton, Head of the Harrow Business School, who had been co-opted on to the Committee and would be leading the sub-group on Communication, Information Audit and Information Flow.

 

14.2          Minutes of the Previous Meeting

The minutes of the meeting held on 5 March 2002 were approved as a correct record.

 

14.3          Matters Arising

14.3.1    Information on Quality and Standards in HE (Min 13.3.1): the Planning Office advised the meeting that the recently issued report 'Information on Quality and Standards in Higher Education' (HEFCE 02/15) set out the quantitative data that would be published on institutions.  It was intended to disaggregate to subject level (using the 19 JACS subject areas) the HEFCE indicators currently published at institution level and to standardise the use of subject codes across the sector.  The move over to the JACS system from the HESA coding system in 2002/03 would largely be carried out by automatic mapping, but great care would need to be taken in decisions on the choice of subject codes because of the impact on subject-based performance indicators and on HEFCE grant.  The Chair added that a further document on institutional audit had been issued by the QAA for consultation; the document referred to the use of various schemes for performance indicators.

14.3.2    Guidelines, Standards and Protocols (Mins 13.3.3-4): the documents on the metastandards for the creation of documents, the standards for computing services and the protocol for the use of video had all been placed on the intranet.

 

14.4          Chair's Business

14.4.1    Communications, Information Audit and Information Flow Sub-Group: the Chair of the Sub-Group, Mark Patton, reported that he was about to email a representative group of staff to take part in the Sub-group, which would first meet in June.  He had carried out a preliminary mapping exercise of the vertical and horizontal communication routes in the University.  Information audit would be piloted in one unit/department.  Ultimately, it was intended to rationalise the communication system and the information needed and received by staff, students and external bodies.  The work of the group would hopefully be completed within 12 months and in the meantime, periodic reports would be brought to the IS Committee.

14.4.2    Skills and Training Sub-Group: this sub-group, being chaired by Ann Rumpus, was also moving ahead and would have links in to the University's HR Strategy.  The group was to map the training that already existed and come up with rationalisation of provision for staff and students.  The work of this sub-group was also supposed to be completed within a year.

14.4.3    Committee Website: the IS Committee website was being completely redesigned and would need to be maintained.  The website was located on the V-C's intranet under Committees.

14.4.4    John Salmon, Director of IS: the Chair announced that John Salmon would be leaving the University at the end of July.  He thanked John for his tremendous contribution to the Committee and to the development of the Information Strategy and wished him all the very best for the future.

 

14.5          Information Strategy Document

14.5.1    The Chair presented the document which now incorporated comments and contributions made since the last meeting and sought advice on what further work was needed to complete the document in time for Academic Council on 19 June.  There was a suggestion that the document should include a section on the scope of the Strategy what will be covered and what will be left out.  There were some aspects of the core areas for which responsibility clearly lay elsewhere and others where the Committee came very close to other management functions.  It might be useful to stress the constantly changing emphases within the Strategy.  The Committee ought to provide the bridge between the functions which dealt with the core areas of business and the statement on purpose should be strengthened to this effect.  Committee discussed the two sections on 'good management' and 'information management, storage and retrieval' and decided it would be more appropriate to combine the two under the heading of Management Information as a core area.  It had been suggested that a comment on ensuring data quality should be added.  An amendment was made to the section on External Relations so that the Information Strategy, through the development of a communications policy, would play a part in contributing to collaborative strategies for information and communication.  The evolving nature of the Information Strategy was recognised in Section X with its reference to an annual internal review and triennial external review.

14.5.2   Any further comments on the Information Strategy Document should be sent to the Chair by 24 May, for Academic Council agenda on 19 June.

 

14.6          Monitoring of Email Systems

Committee received a copy of a JISC article on the implications of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) and the essential preconditions for legal monitoring of electronic communications.  The University's approved Electronic Communications Policy covered the requirements of the legislation, but needed to be made more widely known.  Future staff would be required to sign for receipt of the Communications Policy at commencement of employment.  An eye was kept on the content of the internet by Heads of School and Marketing and Development and the intranet by the Director of On-Line Learning.

 

14.7          Report on Virtual Learning Environments

The Director of Information Systems had prepared a substantial report on a thorough investigation of Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) on behalf of the University, to ascertain the strategic importance and amount of interest in these systems, which are designed to manage the online interactions between tutors and learners and between learners themselves.  The report had been considered at a meeting of the On Line Learning Group in April and a note of the discussion had also been circulated to Committee.  Following a comparative testing of various VLE products, Blackboard had been proposed as the best option for the University and this proposal had been supported.  The Chair of OLLG was now working on a request to the Quintin Hogg Trust for support for the project costs for two years.  Committee agreed that the selection of Blackboard as the VLE for use in the University was well reasoned and that the report should now be forwarded to Academic Council for approval.

 

14.8          Network Development Strategy

A progress report on the implementation of the network development strategy was received.  The plan was progressing extremely well with virtually all the actions scheduled for 2001/02 completed.  The Director of IS assured members that traffic on the network was measured and its capacity was more than adequate to cope with increased demand.  Funding for future plans had been included in the capital budget.  The report which had been widely circulated around the institution would also be sent to VCEG for information.

 

14.9          Password Issues and Developments

Committee received a brief report on the work done on problems that had been experienced with the user account information held in a directory on the Novell service.  It was planned to replace the service over the summer and subsequently to make further developments which would allow users to have a single username and password across all of the major services.

 

14.10.1Paul Beck, Corporate Applications Manager (ISLS), presented the report from the Chair of the E-Business Steering Group on progress with the portfolio of projects related to e-business.  Appendix 1 to the report summarised the current status of the e-business projects identified as priorities, Appendix 2 set out the case for the replacement of the HR/Payroll system and Appendix 3 proposed guidelines for information systems project management at the University.  The piloting in short courses of Phase 1 of the student online application, enrolment and payment (SOLAPE) project had been satisfactory but take-up by campus staff needed to be encouraged.   Payment online would be operational in time for enrolment in the autumn.  The infrastructure created for Phase 1 would be built on for Phase 2 for postgraduate and part-time courses.

 

14.10.2Provision of internet access, telephones and television services for Halls of Residence was being reconsidered following the recent unsuccessful tendering exercise.  Telephones would now be provided separately.  The Webmail service trialed last year had now been extended to all students and staff.

 

14.10.3Committee welcomed the news that the Vice-Chancellor had approved the replacement of the HR/Payroll system, it being the most vulnerable of the existing corporate applications.  This was going out to tender and a project team being put in place.  Planning for the more complex Student Records and Finance systems would occur at a later stage.  In the meantime, two reviews by external consultants had been initiated, one of quality assurance processes and the other of student related administrative processes.  This work would be relevant to the Communication Sub-group.  Information about what was currently happening with SRS could be found on the Web.

 

14.10.4The Guidelines for Information Systems Project Management were intended to be adaptable for different types of projects and environments.  The need for project management depended on the size and cost of any particular project.  It was agreed the Guidelines should be taken forward for formal approval.

14.10.5Comments on any of the e-business projects should be referred to the E-Business Steering Group.

 

It was reported that use of the intranet index system for the approved Key Documents policy had been piloted in three units and would be extended further.  Interested units had to have a name registered to be a managed site.  The system provided an electronic directory filing service where the documents were defined as key by the owner.  However, there could be occasions when overarching requirements might dictate what units considered to be key documents.

 

 

             Date of Next Meeting

             To be arranged