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CIO interview: Sean Green, Birkbeck, University of London
Birkbeck University interim CIO got a taste for the ‘exciting’ and ‘challenging’ role of a tech leader in higher education while in his previous role at the University of East Anglia
Sean Green, interim CIO at Birkbeck, University of London, tells Computer Weekly that the promise of the university of the future requires a challenging journey to get there.
With the delivery of education being transformed through technology such as audio-visual and virtual reality, it’s an exciting time to lead higher education organisations on their tech journeys, but the excitement is reined in by diminishing budgets.
In his current role, Green and his 150 IT staff are charged with overseeing four areas of responsibility. These are made up of IT services, information governance, library services and digital education, with the latter being the interface between academic teaching staff and technology.
Green joined Birkbeck, which has about 10,000 students, from the University of East Anglia (UEA) where he spent a couple of years as director of digital and data
He tells Computer Weekly that his time at UEA made the chance to take on another higher education role attractive to him: “What motivates me is doing interesting things, but also things that match my values – working with young people, working with research communities and the real sense of being able to contribute and make a difference. My last role was interesting, and I thought I would stay in the sector.”
While his work offers him what he wants in his career, he is hamstrung to an extent in what he can do in his current role due to falling income. “Student income drives our ability to spend money needed to invest in tech, but there is less money,” he says.
“The challenge for us and the higher education sector is money – the money issues caused by changing demographics and the changes in behaviour with a lot of young people no longer seeing [university] as the only path for getting on with their career.”
He adds that many young people today see apprenticeship degrees as being cheaper and easier for them to do. In addition, the higher education sector’s “heavy reliance” on international students was not helped by visa restrictions, regarding dependants, brought in by the previous government: “It was a short-term hit to get the immigration figures down, but it’s massively hit the education sector, and it hasn’t been reversed by the current government.”
While Brexit and the removal of freedom of movement hit hard, according to Green, “the biggest thing a couple years ago was when the government was trying to manipulate the immigration figures because it was a political hot potato. They changed the rules about dependants and therefore we were a less attractive market to India, Africa and China, for example.”
But it is not just changes to visa rules that have reduced enrolment, Green says the numbers on international students post Covid are up to 30% less.
Building the university of the future
But work goes on at Birkbeck, building a university fit for the future, with projects around virtual reality and audio-visual technology receiving funds, says Green. The latter is part of the university’s work on what is known as Hyflex, which promises students the same experience at home as in the classroom.
“You have people in the classroom and people at home and they should be able to interact each other. To enable this to happen, we have multiple screens and cameras that allows the lecturer to bring people onto screen in the classroom or at home, so it’s more than a Teams or Zoom experience.”
Green says the university is making a “massive investment” in Hyflex, with three-quarters of its classrooms gaining that ability by the autumn time, with all of his classes having that capability by the middle of next year. As well as aiding UK-based students with flexible studying, this could help to serve international students who can’t get visas.
Virtual reality is another part of building the university experience of the future. Green says Birkbeck is investing in the technology by building a lab where it will create its own virtual reality to meet the needs of different courses. “You can also buy academic content off the shelf,” he adds.
The introduction of audio-visual and virtual reality technology goes beyond using it to educate, but it will give students the vital skills using technology when they enter the workplace, says Green.
Legacy costs
But money for new tech must be balanced with maintaining and replacing existing systems. “We’ve got to replace systems and put in new systems because – like many public domains – there are lots of legacy IT systems which require lots of maintenance,” says Green.
He adds that Birkbeck and other universities are “fairly unique” in that there are lots on in-house build systems: “Over the past 10 years, the Birkbeck IT team [has been] very strong technically, [with] DevOps and development people that could program.”
He says that some of the systems that were developed in-house today would have equivalents available off the shelf. In-house systems, including timetabling and service management systems, could have been bespoke to suit the university and would save money on ongoing licensing costs.
“At the time, they were designed they may have been ahead of the game and there may not have been many of these systems in the market available to higher education.” However, now they are a hindrance, he adds. “We don’t have the flexibility and can’t maximise the use of new technology like artificial intelligence technology as we can’t invest in that, and it would hold us back.”
He says in-house systems will be replaced gradually as it is a major undertaking: “Each one of these consumes a lot of resources, and we don’t have a big team, so you have to plan them and make the business case to get the funding.”
This is a challenge because large sums are spent by universities on often large estates. “I am always competing with estates, and we have similar demands,” adds Green. “I have demands to make sure the university is kept safe with cyber security, that we have business continuity and that we are giving our students what they expect in terms of a digital experience. But you also need buildings that are safe and not leaking roofs, that sort of stuff.”
It’s about balancing in priorities, he adds: “That’s something that I have to steer with colleagues and make business cases.”
One area where investment is being prioritised is into renewing the university’s ageing network infrastructure, which Green describes as the “backbone” of everything the team does.
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