Digital strategies in UK higher education: making digital mainstream

Taking a strategic and organisation-wide approach to adopting, implementing and developing digital technologies is critical in underpinning the long-term success and sustainability of universities.

In 2020, Universities UK, Jisc and Emerge Education, together with technical partner Salesforce, developed a long-term digital strategy framework (Iosad, 2020). It aimed to help university leaders build on their rapid response experiences during the pandemic. Now, in 2023, how are UK universities articulating their digital strategies? The picture is varied. Some are creating specific digital transformation strategies, while others are incorporating digital across existing strategies.

Jisc commissioned this work to develop a better understanding of the current state of digital strategies in UK HE, and how Jisc can best help universities with ambitions to use digital in transforming their activities.

We interviewed ten digital leaders from UK universities with a range of roles and responsibilities, from vice-presidents to IT directors. We also reviewed written strategies from other universities and attended conferences and events across the sector where digital strategy was a key theme. We obtained an international perspective through reviewing research into digital transformation from EDUCAUSE and others.

This report is intended as a snapshot of the UK HE sector at this point in time. It describes the aspirations universities have for the future, but also the realities of where they are right now, the challenges they face and what they know they need to put in place.