Services, projects, liaison

Strategic liaison with the Faculty of Engineering this morning. We used our planning statement as the basis of the agenda, particularly our objectives for the coming year. Under Learning and Teaching we reported on the upgrade to our VLE, and also a lot of work which is happening over the summer to improve the teaching  infrastructure, especially the wireless network. Lots of things happening in the provision of learning and teaching spaces as well, with refurbishments being planned for University House which will include some flexible learning space, and the development of the Learning Hub which will bring a number of student skills support together. We also talked about the planning Engineering are involved in for some major capital developments which  will provide some very innovative and shared teaching spaces.  The main topic under Research and Innovation was research data management, and some work we are doing jointly with the Library and R&I services to come up with practical solutions and advice for researchers.  The biggest topic under Communication and Collaboration was our move to Google Apps, which is currently going very well.  Well over half of our staff accounts moved, and very few problems encountered. And we got some very positive and complimentary comments about our staff who have been helping departments with the move.

This afternoon we had Service Strategy Board where we receive reports from our Service Advisory Groups (which have just started meeting), our service managers, and our project managers. Always a very full meeting, with a lot of useful discussion. No new projects today, which is a good job, as we are struggling in some areas to delver the ones we have. Some projects on hold to allow us to concentrate on the ones where we have a tight deadline, such as the Enquirer and Applicant Portal where we have to deliver it for our new students who will be coming in September. Some good progress on many projects though. We also had a look at a revised Incident Management Policy, which is the sort of document you hope you never need, but if past experience is anything to go by..........