13.22 We believe, however, that the adoption of Communications and Information Technology (C&IT) is too big, too expensive, and too fundamental to the operation of the institution as a whole to be decided at faculty level. We also think that institutional staff would welcome a strong lead from management in this unknown and uncertain area. While we are not advocating central direction in all such matters, it is very important for top management to take a lead on the overarching infrastructure issues, which should create a flexible environment within which staff can deliver high quality teaching and research more effectively.

13.23 To help achieve this, we believe it will be necessary for institutions to introduce managers who have both a deep understanding of C&IT, and its application to higher education, and senior management experience. There is a shortage of such individuals within higher education. They would therefore have to be bought in or developed by institutions themselves.

Recommendation 42 We recommend that all higher education institutions should develop managers who combine a deep understanding of Communications and Information Technology with senior management experience.

Networking
13.24 We have observed that, through the Funding Bodies, higher education has in place an enviable infrastructure in the shape of the Joint Academic Network – JANET, which is one of the most technologically advanced networks in the world. The network, and a range of network services, is managed on behalf of the four UK higher education Funding Bodies by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC).

13.25 All higher education institutions in the UK are linked into the network by high-speed connections, as are about 90 further education institutions. An estimated 90 per cent of all significant sites of higher education currently have their own access to JANET.7 Networks (local, national and international) are impacting upon higher education in a number of ways: as a source of information and software; as a marketing tool; to support learning and teaching; to support research; and for a wide variety of administrative and management purposes. JANET traffic has risen 25-fold, from approximately 40 Gigabytes (40,000,000,000 bytes) a day three years ago, to around 1 Terabyte (1,000,000,000,000 bytes) a day in 1997.8

13.26 Academic researchers have identified the need for improved international bandwidth to meet the needs of an increasingly international research environment.9 We recognise that networks, previously most heavily used by the research community, are now also being more regularly used to support learning and teaching and other activities and that this might eventually reduce access to networks needed by researchers. We believe that increased investment in the network capacity will be essential if researchers are to continue to make good use of centrally provided high performance computing. The networking needs of the research community are discussed further in Chapter 11.

13.27 JANET is extensively used. A recent survey of academic staff connected to JANET found that 98 per cent used electronic mail at least once a week and 92 per cent reported that they found it ‘essential’ or ‘very useful’. Use of and benefit from other technologies, such as video-conferencing, was found to be less widespread and was identified by only a minority of respondents, but the study noted that this ‘probably reflects the availability of the technology rather than...the number of users who would use the facilities if they were more widely available’.10
Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs)11
13.28 The MANs connect a number of institutions, and sites within those institutions, at regional level, and permit very high speed, sophisticated, high quality network communications. Existing MANs are also connected to each other through the SuperJANET 12 network. The Committee of Scottish Higher Education Principals told us that the Scottish MANs give Scottish higher education ‘a considerable lead over most other countries – including the US’ – in terms of high quality connectivity between higher education institutions.13 Furthermore, we have considered and acknowledge that Scotland has attained a ‘world-beating network at a very small incremental cost above that of an adequate network’.14

13.29 Metropolitan Area Networks (MANs) offer a platform for closer links and collaboration between local institutions, local industry and, potentially, colleges of further education on a regional basis. Scottish higher education institutions envisage that MANs will support extensive inter-institutional collaborative projects as part of a programme of strategic change. Although new MANs are being planned and built, there are still significant areas of the UK which are not covered. We, therefore, commend the further development of MANs where the Funding Bodies and institutions consider that these are technically and financially sensible.

Information resources
13.30 There is a growing range of electronic information available over JANET. This material is becoming increasingly important for both learning and research in the higher education community. For example the ISI (Institute of Scientific Information) bibliographic dataset is used by 103 institutions and the IBSS (International Bibliography of the Social Sciences) has 120 subscribing higher education institutions. There is a steady growth of usage of around 70 per cent per annum. Coherent collections of subject-based datasets are also being generated through the electronic libraries (eLib) programme, designed to lead to a distributed national electronic resource for higher education. There are also promising developments in the creation of electronic versions of journals resulting from the joint Funding Bodies’ pilot Site Licence initiative.15

13.31 Multi-media electronic information available over the network can provide valuable and important building blocks for course material. We see this as a development of growing importance and value. Close liaison is therefore needed between providers of such material and the proposed Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education and, in particular, with any company created to produce, commission and market on-line learning and teaching materials (see Chapter 8).

13.32 C&IT will have a profound effect upon the relationship between the higher education sector and the publishing industry. We welcome the initiative by the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the Publishers Association to establish a series of working parties to consider how these changes might best be effected. We believe that institutions will need to become more professional and proficient in the production and distribution of electronic publications. We suggest that, as an output from eLib, there should be a detailed assessment of this matter and provision of advice to the sector about electronic publications, for teaching and research accordingly.

Intellectual property rights and copyright
13.33 We have noted the JISC’s suggestion that higher education institutions should become more interested in the ownership of the copyright of learned journal articles produced by academics in their employment, not as a means of earning money but as a means of saving expenditure.16

13.34 We have also noted that current copyright legislation (the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988) precludes the use by individuals of copyright digital information without clearance by the copyright owner, which may take weeks. These delays hamper the speed of interaction between student and teacher and make unnecessary demands on staff time. We are, therefore, of the view that there must be provision for the free and immediate use by teachers and researchers of copyright digital information.

Recommendation 43
We recommend to the Government that it should review existing copyright legislation and consider how it might be amended to facilitate greater ease of use of copyright materials in digital form by teachers and researchers.

Future networking
13.35 We have considered how networking can be more fully exploited by the higher education community. To gain the full benefits of Communications and Information Technology (C&IT), all significant centres of higher education will require access to a satisfactory pervasive network.

13.36 As a significant proportion of higher education is delivered in further education colleges, we consider that all further education institutions should have access to the higher education network, either directly or via a secondary connection to a local higher education institution. This is in keeping with the report of the Learning and Technology Committee of the Further Education Funding Council for England which recommended that a third party owned, flexible bandwidth communications network, managed on behalf of the further education sector and linking all colleges, should be established.17 This should be extended UK-wide and the appropriate Funding Bodies should work together to develop suitable networks.

13.37 To realise the wider benefits of C&IT there is a strong case for greater connectivity between the higher education sector and other organisations and sectors, such as schools, community colleges, Training and Enterprise Councils and Local Enterprise Companies, the National Health Service and other national organisations such as the British Library. Links are possible through Internet service providers but there is a case for strengthening these links through higher bandwidth connections to enable access to more sophisticated applications available on JANET.

Recommendation 44
We recommend to the Government and the Funding Bodies that, to harness and maximise the benefits of Communications and Information Technology, they should secure appropriate network connectivity to all sites of higher education delivery and further education colleges by 1999/2000, and to other relevant bodies over the medium term.

Future cost trends
13.38 The predicted demand and growth in network traffic and requirement for enhanced bandwidth will result in significant additional costs, year-on-year, to the sector, and the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) has signalled the introduction of tariffs in the future. We are not opposed in principle to the introduction of tariffs, provided that such tariffs offer value for money to customers and do not unreasonably limit access to quality materials and services to those customers least able to pay. Cost should not be an obstacle to pervasive broadband access, nor should it inhibit growth in the use and availability of quality learning materials and information resources. Our immediate concern is that the swift and sudden introduction of tariffs would have a dampening and damaging effect on development and use of such materials. We therefore consider that the introduction of tariffs should be withheld until 2000/2001 and that thereafter tariffs should be phased in. Meanwhile, institutions should take steps to ensure that network usage is efficient.

13.39 As students gradually require increased access to networks, it will become more important for institutions to supply networking to student residences (as many are already doing) and to offer dial-up connectivity to students in their own homes. In the case of provision in institutions, there will need to be some control over the amount of costs and, therefore, usage, as there are few economies of scale to be had. Eventually, students at home will have connectivity provided by Internet service providers and fund their own access, just as many currently fund their own travel to their place of study. We suggest a period of subsidy and gradual migration to user provision as a means of managing the transitional phase.

Recommendation 45
We recommend that institutions of higher education, collectively or individually as appropriate, should negotiate reduced tariffs from telecommunications providers on behalf of students as soon as possible.

13.40 SuperJANET has now successfully established the potential of multi-service networking.18 We believe there is now a requirement to make such a network available throughout the higher education community, at an affordable price, to enable the widespread use of Communications and Information Technology (C&IT)-based learning and teaching materials to supplement existing modes of teaching.

13.41 Table 13.2 provides an estimate of likely costs of our recommendations on networks. These have been prepared on the basis of the current year by the JISC and are indicative only at this stage.

,
13.42 The Funding Bodies are already planning substantial expenditure on networking through the Joint Information Systems Committee, and the expenditure outlined in the table falls within that budget.

Student Portable Computer
13.43 Over the next ten years, all higher education institutions will, and should, progressively move significant aspects of administration and learning and teaching to the computer medium. They should be planning for this now. The development of powerful paperback-sized ‘notebook’ computers, capable of sending and receiving e-mail and accessing the Internet, is envisaged within the next few years.21 We expect that this technology will be harnessed by students and institutions for learning and teaching and administration through the development of a Student Portable Computer (SPC).

13.44 The SPC will store basic course information and enable the student to undertake a significant amount of work off-line (for example drafting of assignments). It will also allow the student, via a network connection, to access electronic information (such as timetables, course materials and library catalogues), to submit assignments, and to communicate with tutors and other students. It is possible that the SPC might be a fully mobile device accessing the network through wireless technology. We found, on our visit to the USA in January 1997, that an SPC (usually an industry-standard laptop computer) is already a requirement for courses at a number of institutions. The same requirement applies to some UK programmes.

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