JISC appeals as cash crisis looms

The UK funding councils' Joint Information Systems Committee is pressing the higher education sector to react to its five-year strategy document, which was mailed to campuses at the beginning of the summer vacation, writes Tony Durham.

JISC's proposals would build on the United Kingdom's leading-edge development of JANET, SuperJANET, networked information services and metropolitan area networks. But the funding of the expanded services poses a problem.

The cost of implementing the strategy would reach Pounds 47.6 million in the academic year 2000/01, leaving a funding gap of Pounds 16.3 million if JISC's topsliced contribution is pegged at Pounds 31.3 million a year.

A cash crisis could be avoided if JISC pruned its plans. But JISC chairman John Arbuthnott, who is principal of the University of Strathclyde, rejects the suggestion that the plans were over-ambitious. "It is leading edge work and in that sense it is bold," he said. "But the ideas are not bold, they are derived from a well-based consultation with the sector."

Official JISC policy is against any increase in the topsliced grant. But dissenters argue that Pounds 30 million is a small sum in the context of the total HE budget, and that the current topsliced amount could easily be doubled. New income could be generated by charging institutions according to their usage of the network and information services, though this is likely to be equally unpopular.

The biggest unknown is the potential income that might be generated by extending JISC services to schools, further education, the National Health Service, public libraries and commerce.

With such ventures as the Knowledge Gallery (a digital picture library), JISC is already entering into potentially profitable alliances with companies like Kodak and Sun Microsystems. JISC member Derek Law, director of information systems and services at King's College London, believes JANET and SuperJANET should be opened up to outside organisations: "Do you want an elitist network for the number-crunchers or the backbone of an information superhighway for the country?" he asked.

Network capacity will also have to grow rapidly if technologies like videoconferencing become popular. Traffic is tripling annually. When its current contract with BT expires next March, JISC may use the threat of switching to another contractor to cut a keener deal. But a complete break with BT would be risky. "What is provided by the BT contract is very central to the infrastructure," Professor Arbuthnott said.