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Jisc is a United Kingdom not-for-profit company that provides network and IT services and digital resources in support of further and higher education institutions and research as well as not-for-profits and the public sector.


History

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) was established on 1 April 1993 under the terms of letters of guidance from the Secretaries of State to the newly established Higher Education Funding Councils for
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
,
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
and
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...
, inviting them to establish a Joint Committee to deal with networking and specialist information services. JISC was to provide national vision and leadership for the benefit of the entire Higher Education sector. The organisation inherited the functions of the Information Systems Committee (ISC) and the Computer Board, both of which had served universities. An initial challenge was to support a much larger community of institutions, including ex-polytechnics and higher education colleges. The new committee was initially supported by four sub-committees, covering Networking; Awareness, Liaison and Training; Electronic Information; and Technology Applications. In 1995, the Northern Ireland Department of Education became a full partner in JISC. The organisation expanded again in 1999 when the further education funding bodies became funding partners. This expansion prompted a restructuring and a new set of committees: * JISC Committee for Authentication and Security (JCAS) November 1999 – January 2002. The work of this committee was taken over by JCN2 and JCIE3. * JISC Committee for Electronic Information (JCEI) November 1999 – January 2002. The work of this committee was taken over by JCIE3 and JCCS4. * JISC Committee for Integrated Environments for Learners (JCIEL) November 1999 – January 2002. The work of this committee was taken over by JCLT5. * JISC Committee for Awareness, Liaison and Training (JCALT) The work of this committee was taken over by JOS6. * JISC Committee on Networking (JCN2). The expansion also raised wider concerns about JISC's governance, and Sir
Brian Follett Sir Brian Keith Follett (born 22 February 1939) is a British biologist, academic administrator, and policy maker. His research focused upon how the environment, particularly the annual change in day-length (photoperiod), controls breeding in ...
was appointed to carry out an independent enquiry. His report, published in November 2000, concluded that "JISC is perceived as a UK success story, providing a network of world-class standard and a range of excellent services. Importantly, it evolves continuously and is an excellent example of collaboration between the community and the funding bodies". However, Follett made various recommendations for reform, most of which were accepted by the funding bodies. A new structure was therefore put in place from December 2001, consisting of a JISC Board, advised by a steering committee made up of senior officers from each funding body. Six sub-committees fell under two main heads: strategy and policy committees, which aimed to ensure that the needs of specific communities were met (in the fields of research, learning and teaching, and management); and functional committees, concentrating on specific areas of work (networking, information environment, and content acquisition). In January 2005, the
Freedom of Information Act 2000 The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (c. 36) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that creates a public "right of access" to information held by public authorities. It is the implementation of freedom of information legislation ...
came into full effect, giving the public a general right to access all types of recorded information held by public bodies. JISC took an important lead in raising the Act's profile in the academic community and published its own FOI Publication Scheme. In the spring of 2005, the
Learning and Skills Council The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) was a non-departmental public body jointly sponsored by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in England. It closed on 31 Marc ...
(LSC) announced a reduction in its funding contribution to JISC. The LSC and JISC Executive negotiated a package of services that the LSC would continue to contribute towards in the future. Also in 2005, a number of strategies and policies for UK Higher and Further Education were published, reaffirming the importance of ICT: JISC was seen as taking an important role in supporting and implementing these strategies. In the same year, JISC signed agreements with several international partners: * SURF Foundation in the Netherlands, cementing the considerable areas of co-operation between the two organisations; * Australian Department for Education, Science and Training (DEST) supporting the e-Framework initiative which aims to develop a service-oriented approach to the development and integration of IT systems; *
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft The German Research Foundation (german: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft ; DFG ) is a German research funding organization, which functions as a self-governing institution for the promotion of science and research in the Federal Republic of Germ ...
(Germany), Denmark's Electronic Research Library (DEFF) and SURF to create the Knowledge exchange which aims to increase the return on investment by the individual organisations in ICT infrastructure, services and projects. Under the Government Spending Review 2004, JISC was awarded additional funding of £81 million for the period April 2006 to March 2009, and was able to launch a range of new programmes to support the work of the higher education and research community. Funding for SuperJANET5 was provided by all JISC's funding partners. Other activities were funded by the Higher Education Funding Councils for England and Wales. In 2009 Jisc published the ''In From The Cold: An assessment of the scope of ‘Orphan Works’ and its impact on the delivery of services to the public''. Jisc stated the report had four goals: Jisc stated that this project had four goals: *To define the impact of
Orphan Works An orphan work is a copyright-protected work for which rightsholders are positively indeterminate or uncontactable. Sometimes the names of the originators or rightsholders are known, yet it is impossible to contact them because additional details ...
on
Public Sector The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, infra ...
service delivery *Research the scale and scope of the problem across the Strategic Content Alliance communities *Provide qualitative evidence of how access to and use of content are inhibited *Raise the profile of the issue through strategic advocacy and press relations A review of JISC's work, commissioned by the
Higher Education Funding Council for England The Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) was a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom, which was responsible for the distribution of funding for higher education to universities and further education colleges in Engla ...
under the chairmanship of Sir Alan Wilson, was published in February 2011. One of the principal findings of the review was that there is no comparable body to JISC within the UK, and internationally its reputation is outstanding as a strategic leader and partner. The Review concluded that, "JISC is an invaluable national resource which has evolved in response to increasing demands over 20 years". However, the Review also recommended that, due to the breadth and complexity of JISC's activity, its structure, processes, projects, programmes and governance need to be simplified and reshaped: " an era of financial constraint, it is necessary to refocus activities around clearer priorities, and to ensure JISC operates with a sustainable financial model". In 2012 JISC became an independent not-for-profit charity funded mainly by the government and universities. At this point it renamed itself Jisc. In 2019 Jisc merged with Eduserv, another charity promoting IT in the public sector and in charities. The combined entity continues to be named Jisc, and is based at Eduserv's Bristol headquarters. In 2020 Jisc merged with
HECSU The Higher Education Careers Service Unit is an independent research charity based in Manchester for the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, specialising in higher education and graduate employment. It funds research projects for the higher ...
, a careers information and advice service. In 2022 Jisc merged with HESA, the agency responsible for collection, analysis and dissemination of quantitative information about higher education in the United Kingdom.


Services

Services offered by Jisc include: *Providing UK universities and colleges with shared digital infrastructure and services, such as the
JANET Janet may refer to: Names * Janet (given name) * Janet (French singer) (1939–2011) Surname * Charles Janet (1849–1932), French engineer, inventor and biologist, known for the Left Step periodic table * Jules Janet (1861–1945), French psych ...
network *Operating shared digital infrastructure and services, including eduroam UK (wireless access across different institutions), Library Hub, The
Archives Hub The Archives Hub is a Jisc service, and is freely available to all. It provides a cross-search of descriptions of archives held across the United Kingdom, in over 320 institutions, including universities, colleges, specialist repositories, charit ...
(a catalogue of the collections of academic and other institutions), Sherpa (tools for checking permissions around Open Access), Learner Analytics and authentication systems (Open Athens and the UK Federation) *Negotiating sector-wide deals, such as the Jisc Collections licenses for academic journals as well as deals with IT vendors, commercial publishers and aggregators of e-content. *Advice on digital technology for education and research. Jisc acts as a national consortium for the UK academic community. Services previously offered by Jisc include: *The Plagiarism Advisory Service, also known as JISCPAS, offered advice on plagiarism to higher education institutions. *A public
mirror A mirror or looking glass is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...
service (''mirror.ac.uk'') primarily focused on
free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...
, operating between 1999 and July 2007.


Personnel

Ronald Urwick Cooke Sir Ronald Urwick Cooke, FRGS DL (born 1 September 1941University of York , mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £8.0 million , budget = £403.6 million , chancellor = Heather Melville , vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery , students ...
, was appointed chair of JISC in 2004, and served until 2008. He was succeeded by
Timothy O'Shea Sir Timothy Michael Martin O'Shea (born 28 March 1949, Hamburg, Germany) is a British computer scientist and academic. He was the Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Edinburgh from 2002 to 2018. Biography O'Shea grew up in L ...
, principal and vice-chancellor of the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...
, who was appointed with effect from 1 January 2009. Martin Hall, vice-chancellor of the
University of Salford , caption = Coat of ArmsUniversity of Salford , mottoeng = "Let us seek higher things" , established = 1850 - Pendleton Mechanics Institute 1896 – Royal Technical Institute, Salford 1967 – gained ...
served as chair until 2015 when he was replaced by David Maguire, vice-chancellor of the
University of Greenwich The University of Greenwich is a public university located in London and Kent, United Kingdom. Previous names include Woolwich Polytechnic and Thames Polytechnic. The university's main campus is at the Old Royal Naval College, which along with it ...
. Since September 2021, the chief executive has been Heidi Fraser-Krauss.


References


Further reading

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External links

* {{Authority control Educational organisations based in London Higher education organisations based in the United Kingdom Information technology organisations based in the United Kingdom Organisations based in Bristol Organizations established in 1993 University organizations