Government advisors set out plans for IT and education

Jisc's strategy promotes e-learning, open systems and wider access

The Joint Information Systems Committee (Jisc) has set out its vision for the role of IT in further and higher education for the next few years, including provision of content to more students and researchers, encouragement for e-learning and the maintenance of open systems and shared services.

The state-backed group that advises on IT’s role in education last week released its Draft Strategy 2007-2009 document and will be taking feedback until a final strategy document is published in November or December this year.

Jisc communications manager Philip Pothen said it is critical to ensure that trustworthy information is widely available. “It’s about open standards, not whether it’s open-source or commercial software,” he said.

Pothen added that Jisc was also looking at ways to encourage educational institutions to work more closely with private-sector organisations. “One of the things we’re looking at is the increasing number of universities that can spin off [intellectual property] or sell research to enterprises,” he said.

Other projects underway at Jisc include the Shibboleth national authentication service for the Jisc community, which is due to launch next March, making publications based on public-funded research more widely available, and combating plagiarism or misleading information on the internet.