Introducing JISC and the Regional Support Centre

I realise that this is probably a bit late in the day, but this week the team here have been out and about in the West of Scotland with our Roadshow. An element of the Roadshow is delivering half hour briefing seminars the first of which gives an overview of JISC and what we do at a regional level here at the RSC. I’ve done a couple of these this week and also hosted a meeting with a couple of visitors to one of our supported colleges, from Gdansk University of Technology. Responses, to a man, from people I’d assumed knew what we do, was interesting and it became evident that it’s probably time to re-introduce ourselves. So here’s a few paragraphs on the JISC world - according to Joan !

The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) is funded by the UK Funding Councils and various research bodies. The mission of the JISC is to provide world-class leadership in the innovative use of ICT to support education and research. It does this by funding a number of national services and a range of programmes & projects. The JISC is not an institution in itself but is governed by a series of committees which determine strategy and oversee the work, with the JISC’s operational activities provided by the FE & HE communities themselves.

There are currently 48 services provided for by JISC. Most of the services provided through JISC are hosted within one of the UKs Higher or Further Education Institutions and they include services which broadly fit into the following categories:
· Archiving and Data Services including Access and Authentication Services including Federated Access Management Service, UK Data Archive & MIMAS
· Content Services including INTUTE, JISC Collections, Hairdressing Training, & EDINA
· Multimedia Services including TASI, BUFVC, Film & Sound Online & The Education Image Gallery
· Research & Development Services TechWatch, OSS Watch & JANET CETIS
· Strategic Advisory Services including JISC Legal, JISC infoNet, JISC Internet Plagiarism Advisory Service TechDis & Regional Support Centres
· Technical Services JANET, JANET CSIRT
· Training Services including Netskills & Regional Support Centres

Regional Support Centres were established in 2000 in the first instance to support the Further Education sector but have subsequently broadened the scope of support to include (in Scotland) smaller Higher Education Institutions. There are 13 RSCs in the UK, 2 in Scotland with institutions in North & East Scotland supported by the RSC Scotland North & East based in Edinburgh’s Telford College. Institutions based in the South & West of Scotland are supported by the team based at the RSC Scotland South & West located at the West of Scotland Science Park, part of the University of Glasgow.

RSCs provide support, offer guidance and facilitate activities that lead to organisations themselves taking responsibility for developing and implementing their own solutions. With funding in place until 2010 the RSC is the first point of contact in the region for all issues to do with the use of the network and new learning technologies.

While JISC determines the national core remit of the Regional Support Centres, each centre responds to local circumstances and determines appropriate methods for delivering the common core remit. RSC Scotland South & West provides support to 20 colleges of Further Education and 3 Higher Education Institutions from Cumbernauld to the outer reaches of Dumfries & Galloway and with the exception of some events and training, services from the RSC are free to supported institutions.

Each member of staff interfaces with an appropriate college contact who can disseminate information more widely throughout their own organisation e.g. the RSC Manager works with a member of the Senior Management Team and the eAdvisor for technical and infrastructure management interfaces with ICT managers. The eAdvisor for Accessibility and Inclusion works through senior support for learning staff and the main contact for eResources is generally the head of the library and learning resources centre. Information about individual staff members and the focus of their work can be found on the RSC Scotland South & West website as can the details of the strategic and operational support we offer to our supported institutions.

So there’s a very brief overview of what we’re about here at the RSC. Comments and questions are most welcome – Joan