Infrastructure

To deliver our new strategy we need to ensure we have the infrastructure in place which ensure the university remains both financially and environmentally sustainable.

In building our new strategy it is vital that our estates and IT support the delivery of our ambitions, enables improved ways of working and is fit for purpose. We also want business processes that are smart, efficient, provide essential management information and enable compliance.

The University’s Transforming Bedfordshire strategy is underpinned by a range of enabling strategies, detailed elsewhere in this newsletter. We have developed an Infrastructure Plan to ensure that the delivery of those initiatives is not impeded by a failure to provide an infrastructure which actively enables change and facilitates swift and efficient implementation. We have seen in the responses to our staff culture survey that staff are concerned about the effectiveness of our systems and processes and the Infrastructure Plan will address this.

Investment in infrastructure and the processes surrounding them is an essential part of delivering Transforming Bedfordshire. We have made significant financial investment in key areas of infrastructure.

Estates

We have improved visibility of services on campus such as the relocation of the SiD desk in Luton to a larger and more accessible area. Architects and surveyors have reviewed the Luton and Bedford campuses with Executive Deans to scope out modernisation and refurbishment to make the campuses more effective and attractive, particularly to new students. Combined with feedback from conversation café’s held last year, our next step is to follow up on all the recommendations. We are also looking to identify a new social learning area in the Campus Centre at Luton and we’ll be consulting with students on this.

ICT

We’ve updated teaching room audio capture in 50 teaching rooms. A significant programme to update the ICT infrastructure is already underway with network, storage and data centre replacement. We continue to implement a range of initiatives to keep our ICT systems safe from cyber security attacks with multifactor authentication (MFA) introduced for staff and we are now rolling this out for students.

MARC

We have undertaken an in depth review of our admissions cycle and as a result have introduced a number of changes. We have already made more than double the number of conditional offers to students at this stage of the cycle compared to last year. We’re now working hard to convert these additional offers into student acceptances with a range of enhanced ‘offer holder’ events led by academic staff. New campus branding has been introduced in reception areas and we will shortly be meeting with colleagues to develop subject location branding within faculties.

Systems and Processes

We are committed to a fundamental review of our systems and business processes. We have committed a £4m investment in SITS to ensure that it provides a significantly improved student experience alongside automation which will free staff from manual interventions and improve our data quality. Many staff will have been involved in the delivery of our online Registration Task which went live on October 21' and we’ve made further improvements for the February 22' intake. Next up are projects to transform our admissions processes, student management and assessment processes. The SITS programme is due to complete in December 2023. Our sincere thanks to everyone who has contributed to this so far.

We have commissioned an external review of our timetabling system and processes and we’re implementing the findings. Our target is to be able to provide students with timetables 6 weeks before the start of teaching.

The Academic Registrar and Head of Quality are reviewing all of our quality assurance processes to ensure that they are appropriate and proportionate. We’ve already delegated responsibility for some processes to Faculty level and are looking to rationalise other areas, particularly the ‘UIFs and CIFs’. The target here is to ensure that our systems are effective and the academic administrative burden is reduced.

We have an agreement in principle to implement Learning Analytics, a project group has been established and we are about to go out to tender. This will help us identify those students who are at risk and intervene earlier to support them.

Planning, Monitoring and Reviewing

A crucial part of our ability to deliver Transforming Bedfordshire is to ensure that we have the data/intelligence to be able to assess both our current performance and to be able to understand where our initiatives are having an impact. We’ve recruited a new Director of Strategic Improvement and we’re now looking to recruit the team to support the work. We’ve rolled out subject and course level data to understand our performance in delivering our Access & Participation Plan which includes detailed information on retention and the awarding gap. Further datasets are on their way. We’re about to introduce a streamlined planning process to ensure that our effort is focused on priorities that will deliver change. We have introduced a new governance structure which is centred round the delivery of our enabling strategies, we will review this in the summer. The Board of Governors have undertaken a complete review of their own effectiveness and are now implementing their development plan to embed the findings of the review.

The Infrastructure Plan will need to be flexible and adapt to changes in how we deliver the enabling strategies. The Plan is focused on ensuring that we have the infrastructure in place to deliver Transforming Bedfordshire.

It was great to be back on campus last week and seeing what needs to be done in preparation for further opening next month. There will still be Government guidelines to follow and the Facilities Team will be ensuring everything is as clean as possible on campus and refreshed where necessary. We are also busy looking at developing more branding and identity of place around our campuses to make everywhere more welcoming for the academic year in September.

Turning now to home student recruitment for next year, the good news is we are ahead of this time last year and our competitor group. However, as always some areas are struggling and we are taking initiatives to boost these subject areas. There is also an urgent drive to ensure our website is showing our courses in the best possible light.

Thanks to many areas of the University, our financial position is currently strong. This is allowing us to propose a number of estates improvements to our heating and ventilation systems and to the roofs of our buildings, all managed to reduce our carbon emissions. Furthermore, proposals on modernising our technology network, storage and servers, taking more into the cloud and improving our security.

These investments will lay the foundations for sustainable campuses over the life of the new strategic plan, now being consulted on, and beyond. I look forward to discussing thoughts on how everyone thinks all these areas above should develop at the Conversation Café on Tuesday 27 April at 3 pm or from posts on the microsite.

Click here to share your thoughts on the new strategy through our online form.

Estates Strategy

In order to help people to think about estates issues going forward please find below a summary of how the Estates Strategy is likely to be formulated and some of the issues to be discussed.

The University’s estate, including our partner accommodation, is a critical part of our competitiveness for recruiting students and staff - strongly influencing both first impressions of our campuses and encouraging retention with sector competitive, modern, high-quality learning and social spaces, offices and wider facilities.

To achieve optimal, most sustainable outcomes, the Estates Strategy will look to bring in new developments and make better use of existing resources. This includes focused, innovative, value for money, high impact investments such as repurposing and refurbishing spaces.

A number of estates infrastructure projects are about to be implemented over the next two years. These projects will address building fabric and infrastructure issues to deliver key improvements across our estate, particularly roofs, heating and wider infrastructure systems. This in turn will also improve the student and staff experience. A further separate programme will be developed with the new Estates Strategy, as required to reflect any additional investment priorities within the University Strategy.

The commentary below highlights a number of key estate options to be considered within the Estates Strategy.

Academic strategy – changes to teaching pedagogies, learning and working practices and preferences.
Student and staff experience - identify priorities to improve facilities for all aspects of student and staff experience and facilities at all campuses, including options for attractive social and social learning areas, provisions to encourage the student enterprise culture and services such as catering
Best practice space management - how to best use our spaces - maximising efficiency and utilisation, targeting investment effectively
Decarbonisation - towards meeting our Net Zero 2050 commitment, eg heating and ventilation modernising with air source heat pumps, rather than replacing with gas boilers.

Key buildings development and usage

Luton Park Sq: A, B, C Blocks - potential major refurbishment/remodelling and over-cladding - significant modernisation.
Luton - Alexon School of Art and Design: renew the lease, buy a freehold or relocate.
Luton - Park St 'island site' (Iceland and adjacent buildings incl former 'Sub2') - potential redevelopment options and issues as part of campus strategy.
Luton - The Atrium – renew lease on expiry, future professional services office requirements.
Luton - Carnival Arts relationship - basis of ongoing relationship/space use.
Putteridge Bury - re-affirm ongoing use/retention of campus, essential maintenance.
Bedford academic facilities - modification or redevelopment e.g teaching training facilities.
Bedford ‘R’ Blocks surplus student accommodation - key options including towerblock demolition.
Bedford Alexander Sports Centre and nearby land – redevelop; dispose of surplus land.
Aylesbury Mary Seacole Building – review facilities.
Milton Keynes – review facilities.

ICT Strategy

Expand the section below to see our ICT Strategic plan 2020 – 2025 and the current approved infrastructure replacement.

1. ICT Strategic plan 2020 – 2025

• Enhance the teaching environment with technologically leading AV equipment for over 230 teaching rooms, ensuring we are sector leading and delivering fit for purpose services.

• Ensure infrastructure systems are reliable and sustainable, and delivering better storage and server performance where needed by utilising a hybrid solution, maximising both on-premise and cloud technology platforms.

• Implement a University-wide Identity Management solution, to provide information automatically across systems. This will provide identity and security management with centralised control of individual accounts, to enable seamless access to all applications and services.

• Where practical host key business systems e.g. HR, finance, payroll, student record system, and VLE on key provider cloud platforms, to ensure we are at the forefront of sector application development and change.

• Continue to recognise the importance of information security management as a critical element within the management of corporate risk and consequently ensure controls are in place to help manage the security of corporate information assets.

2. Current approved infrastructure replacement

A summary of how ICT plans to implement an approved £5.4m infrastructure program, which would put our technology core platform at the forefront of development within the higher education sector.

The University’s ICT infrastructure comprises three elements: network, server and storage infrastructure. The University’s current server/storage/network infrastructure has served the University well for the last 8 years and is nearing the end of service. The University now seek to invest in modern server/storage/network solutions, increasing capacity, resilience, performance and enabling further improvements to security, backup and recovery

The University’s current server and storage infrastructure is based on consolidated storage from Network Appliance (NetApp), combined with unified blade computing from Cisco. It will cease to be supported in March 2022. It is therefore essential that the refreshed solution is in place by March 2022. The network infrastructure was procured in 2013, Stage 1 of the equipment is due for replacement in 2022/23. Stage 2 wifi infrastructure was procured in 2014 and is based on Aerohive equipment and is scheduled for replacement in 2024 at the latest.

The project would be undertaken in separate stages over three years with the following benefits and indicative costs shown over the page:

Element	Benefits	Est. costs
Server and Storage Infrastructure (Hybrid cloud solution)	Retain full ownership and control of core infrastructure assets. Flexibility to use cloud services while maintaining a good level of cost predictability. Allows inefficient legacy applications to be hosted cost-effectively on-site while also allowing newer cloud-ready applications to be rapidly deployed to the cloud. Combines the advantages of “elastic” computing (scaling and reducing resources rapidly according to need) with the advantages of on-site computing and allows the most advantageous approach to be selected for each application and workload. The new infrastructure will allow the implementation of Zero Trust and micro-segmentation, which drastically improve security posture against cyber attacks Offline backup solution to allow for a faster and safe recovery of systems.	£2.1m with an annual revenue/support cost of approx. 10-15% of capital purchase.
Network core and edge switches	The University can take advantage of the latest technologies to improve datacentre network performance Improved network visibility in the datacentre to enhance monitoring and security Single manufacture for best interoperability Allow us to support the latest security recommendations, such as Zero Trust and Micro-segmentation. New supported hardware with better resilience and performance improvements. 7 to 10 years’ service life for the new solution	£2.3m capital with an annual revenue/ support cost of approx. 10-15% of capital purchase
Wifi network	Supports latest Wi-Fi and Security Standards Improve user experience Replacing wireless will allow us to support the latest wireless security stands such as wpa3 and improve user experience due to the improvements in multi-device performance during busy periods	£1.0m capital with an annual revenue/ support cost of approx. 10-15% of capital purchase

Transforming the student experience by providing excellence in service delivery

We will be implementing a number of key projects to transform the experience of students at Bedfordshire through providing excellence in service delivery. Please expand each section below to learn more about our five priority projects. Each of the projects are at different stages of development. The underlying work streams have been identified and detailed specifications for those work streams are in development.

For an example of a work stream in delivery, please click here to download ‘Unit Choice Automation’.

Project summary

Implementation of a number of key deliverables which will ensure that applicants can apply for courses, provide personal data, qualifications and statutory information to secure a place on their chosen course. Allow admissions to assess applications, verify applicant identity and qualifications and determine whether applicants meet the course entry requirements to be offered a place at the University of Bedfordshire.

Work streams

Issues	Impact
Large amount of manual data input and processing for applications (particularly direct applications) leads to poor data quality No self-service portal for applicants; to view their application progress, provide required information (offer acceptance is on a slip that is scanned and emailed), to progress application processing, pay deposit, and update personal data No self-service agent portal that agents can use to; self-service application forms, check application status or report on client registration data Online application form is outdated and does not collect data required data Inconsistent applicant routes and methods, leading to poor data quality and detrimental impact on external reporting, league tables	Application processing timelines unnecessarily protracted, affecting admission targets, poor applicant experience and institutional reporting Applicant updates or information provision managed through email and manually managed by staff further delaying processing and impacting on data quality High rate of unresolved queries impacting on applicant conversion and business development Offer acceptance not recorded in real time on system affecting business decision-making and reporting Inconsistency in data reporting affects decision-making on admissions, curriculum delivery, workload planning
Risks	Benefits
Loss of competitiveness in market as application processing is inefficient and manual (due to current system configuration) Recruitment and conversion rates are not optimal and are not agile enough to take advantage of market opportunities Poor applicant, agent and staff experience throughout the admission cycle Non-compliance with CMA, GDPR and statutory data reporting as a result of poor data quality	Improved Admissions Processing and Data Increased automation and thus reduction in manual application data processing leading to increased application data integrity supporting decision and offer making Self Service student and Agent Portals freeing up Admissions Teams to focus on application processing and conversion Improved data for market intelligence and organisational agility in the sector Improved Compliance & Reporting GDPR and CMA compliance Improved data for market intelligence and organisational agility in the sector Improved data quality throughout the admissions cycle enabling improved quality of data to support statutory reporting Improved applicant and agent experience Easy to use interfaces for applicants to apply, provide & receive information, accept offers, arrange interviews without requiring staff support Agents can self-service their own data directly from the core student system improving accuracy of invoicing (in other universities this has led to a reduction in over 10K emails to the International Office a year) Refreshed online application form (elsewhere form refresh with agent portal has led to several 100% increase ininternational applications)

Project summary

Restructuring the process through which the student contractually engages with UOB, confirms units and pays for their course. Ensures the integrity of the data that the student supplies/confirms including personal details and information required for statutory data reporting

Work streams

Note: Unit registration is used as an example of what will delivered. Information can be found here.

Issues	Impact
Opens to students too close to course start date Outdated online form and requires a lot of face to face intervention and support plus manual inputting of data Quality of data from admissions and at progression is poor Unnecessary data being collected, necessary data not being collected Paper/email-based processing for T&C and Fee agreements Students assigned incorrect learning units Incomplete or missing unit information during unit choice; courses opt out of unit choice causing further issues Late, incomplete or outstanding course content and delivery patterns from QA process due to late approvals Poor enforcement of registration deadlines Student ID card process is manual and requires in person collection	Insufficient time for students to complete process, or staff to support them, UoB can’t resource plan Large amount of staff support required Ineligible students invited or invited multiple times during the year Data collection not HESA or GDPR compliant Unit registration and timetabling delays Students cannot make informed unit choices Students cannot complete either unit or course registration Lack of stable data to plan academic delivery Many late registrants, timetabling changes and disrupted teaching due to late entries
Risks	Benefits
Poor student experience and reputational damage – access to services, delay in attendance confirmation Students cannot plan (arrange funding, life commitments) Reduction in teaching quality and learning experience Attrition in registration numbers (mostly related to late timetabling changes ) Poor resource management by UoB Units oversubscribed due to late registrants but not enough academics to teach Units undersubscribed so cost of running unit increases impacting ROI of course Errors in regulatory body (HESA, OfS) reporting risking audit failure and inviting future audits.	Improved Admissions Processing and Data Increased automation and thus reduction in manual application data processing leading to increased application data integrity supporting decision and offer making Self Service student and Agent Portals freeing up Admissions teams to focus on application processing and conversion Improved data for market intelligence and organisational agility in the sector Improved Compliance & Reporting GDPR and CMA compliance Improved data for market intelligence and organisational agility in the sector Improved data quality throughout the admissions cycle enabling improved quality of data to support statutory reporting Improved applicant and agent experience Easy to use interfaces for applicants to apply, provide & receive information, accept offers, arrange interviews without requiring staff support Agents can self-service their own data directly from the core student system improving accuracy of invoicing (elsewhere this has led to a reduction in over 10K emails to the International Office a year) Refreshed online application form (elsewhere form refresh with agent portal has led to several 100% increase in international applications)

Project summary

Ensuring the accuracy of: the scheduling of student assessments (coursework, exams), marks entered to enable results, progression and or award calculations in alignment with Academic Regulations. Ensuring the correct identification of students submitting mitigating circumstances or those who may be involved in academic conduct processes if suspected of plagiarism.

Work streams

Issues	Impact
Double and manual mark entry into SITS and BREO by academics Multiple manual checks of student results and awards due to incorrect award calculations in SITS processes Latest regulations not accurately reflected in SITS Units still coded as Level 1-4 rather than 3-7 FHEQ Multiple mark schemes in operation without clarity on which should be applied at unit and course level; award calculations contain out of use units and require manual calculation Results displayed in SITS and BREO often do not match and are confusing Exams scheduling and management very outdated Poor standard of reporting for Examination Boards Mitigating circumstances management is paper and email based Transcripts and student results views are non-compliant with sector standards and are built with scripts sitting outside the core SITS database	High volume of student queries following Exam Boards, including confusion in results view between e:Vision and BREO Delays in progression and award calculations Assessment calculations require time consuming manual checking, re-calculation and award rescindment & reliant on very small group of staff with expertise needed Students often raise issues with transcripts that must be fixed manually and re-issued. Transcripts cannot be produced from SITS; certificates can only be produced on-campus Students not clear as to where they are in the mitigating circumstances process and raise queries
Risks	Benefits
Delayed registration and progression (for continuing students) or Graduation (awarded students) Incorrect marks, progression decisions and awards being given to students. Higher risk for PSRB regulated courses that risk the safety and welfare of others Incorrect or mismatching results data in BREO vs SITS and in in-year and final transcripts derived outside SITS Poor student and staff experience and delays in student journey progression University unable to clearly identify areas of concern in quality at student, unit or course level due to poor and untimely assessment data quality	Improved Assessments Processing and data quality Accurate and automated results, progression and award calculation so significantly reduced manual processing Improved exams, mitigation and academic conduct processes Transcripts derived directly from core SITS database so that information is fully reflective of data in the system Improved data integrity in assessments allowing University to perform insightful quality analysis at student, unit and course level Exam Boards have enhanced reporting supporting QA and enhancement activity Improved Compliance Regulations correctly reflected in SITS where marks are used for progression and award calculation University meeting quality and other regulatory requirements for progressing and awarding students Improved data quality for external reporting Transcripts meet sector standards Improved Student Experience Streamlined assessment processes reducing staff workload and enabling improved student feedback Clarity and confidence in assessment data which students better able to track current and likely future performance and award outcome Self-service and online logging of mitigating circumstances and extension requests; transcripts More efficient production of transcripts and certificates

Project summary

Ensuring the accuracy of; processes and data capture for student or University instigated changes to student registration (withdrawal, interruption etc.). Improved management of accessibility arrangements, placement information and student attendance monitoring.

Work streams

Issues	Impact
Currently manual, paper and email based Data incorrectly processed and recorded Inconsistent application of processes Poor data quality and integrity in registration data set Student placements process and data not fully system based and managed via a set of spreadsheets Statutory reporting contains unacceptably high rate of errors Very little systematic checking of student data critical to managing their experience (e.g. student status, course transfer, interruption, absence, withdrawal) Complex processes to identify and process student cohorts or sub-groups Unclear delivery pattern for students	Registration and other change processes require manual input or staff intervention creating bottlenecks and inefficient processes Certain processes unnecessarily only take place during office hours (e.g. student personal detail updates) whilst competitors offer these services 24/7 Significant manual correction effort required when registration change and other processes fail Risk of placements not compliant with PSRB requirements Teams spend a lot of time chasing statutory data from students who may have already left Staff often manually trawl through data to find errors when this could be supported with targeted error reporting
Risks	Benefits
Poor student and staff experience Delays in registration and course transfers impacting on students' statuses, access to teaching & learning, services, confirmation of attendance etc. Delays in accessibility support and adjustments which important for assessments and student learning Errors in statutory data returns Poor data quality in management information used for decision making and future planning (e.g., trends in withdrawal) Risk of not meeting regulatory requirements Inaccurate decision-making on students' progress and status	Improved Student Data quality Significant improvement in the quality of student data supporting major transitions from one journey point to the next (e.g. applicant to registrant) Significant reduction in manual effort spent correcting student data Broad suite of targeted student data error reporting and rectification procedures to ensure high student data quality to support process automation Improved Compliance Improved data quality for statutory data reporting Improved placements management, meeting all regulatory requirements and improved support for students on placements Improved student attendance monitoring supporting regulations and UKVI requirements Improved Student Experience and Registration Change Processes Move to a more frictionless, self-service and student centric process for managing student registration changes and related data Better and more efficient management of students requiring accessibility adjustments during learning and assessments

Project summary

Ensuring that access to the student records system is constrained to those user groups which need to have access to when during their process journey. Ensure that there is compliance with sector best practice and UoB digital and data security policies.

Work streams

Issues	Impact
SITS User Access Model not reviewed since SITS implementation Loose governance around granting of SITS data access and no regular review of access once granted Business areas have access to system access control areas Access to sensitive personal data is open to staff who use the system infrequently, which could contravene GDPR	Over time access to the important and sensitive data within SITS has become too readily available It is now not possible to completely control and identify who is viewing what, and if they, in fact, should be Breaks best practice access governance principles in sector and in UoB Staff not appropriately trained in the system have access to system
Risks	Benefits
Inappropriate changes to student data and configuration in the system impacting student and staff facing processes (e.g. Clearing, Registration, Graduation) Poor data integrity in turn putting at risk processing and statutory reporting Student data breaches if staff who have access do not have appropriate system and data management training	Improved Governance around SITS data access requests and review of access once granted More secure fit-for-purpose user access model in SITS Improved data auditing, data protection compliance and reduced risk to data damage Improving security whilst supporting business processes

Infrastructure

Investing in our future - Ruth Bourne, Registrar and University Secretary, Donald Harley, Deputy Vice Chancellor Resources

The sustainable future of our estates and modernising technology at Beds by Donald Harley - Deputy Vice Chancellor (Resources)

Estates Strategy

Estates Strategy

ICT Strategy

ICT Strategy

1. ICT Strategic plan 2020 – 2025

2. Current approved infrastructure replacement

Transforming the student experience by providing excellence in service delivery

Admissions

Registration

Assessments

Student Data Management

Access & Security

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