Source:
THE Events
The University of Exeter’s Digital Advisory Network is supporting the institution’s digital transformation with expert knowledge, insight and experience
The University of Exeter’s digital vision is to become the most accessible and connected university destination for any user. At a session held in partnership with the university during the 2024 THE Digital Universities Asia event, Helen Cocks, head of digital strategy and engagement at the University of Exeter, presented some of the key aspects of the university’s digital strategy.
The vision is deliberately broad to ensure that all possible definitions of its keywords are covered. However, the terms used in it have been chosen carefully, explained Cocks. “By accessible, we don’t only mean that students can access their course content or our systems but that they can access them in a format that suits them,” she said. “We also want them to be able to connect with their peers, tutors, staff and wider networks. By user, we don’t only mean students and staff but anyone that has a relationship with the university.”
The university spent three months working with its users to understand what the university experience was like for staff and students. Three priority areas were identified: making the experience the best and most accessible, enabling people to get things done and generating value.
“Before we reached out to our professional networks and alumni, we needed to identify some of the biggest challenges we were facing as a digital team,” said Emily Prevatt, digital operations lead at the University of Exeter. “We looked at how we could support colleagues with their skills gaps, how we might increase awareness of what other sectors were doing and how we could develop skills and plug skills gaps across digital.”
Realising that many individuals within the University of Exeter’s professional network and alumni had already written various iterations of digital strategies, the university’s Digital Advisory Network was born.
“Our Digital Advisory Network is a community of specialists from across multiple industries volunteering their expert knowledge, insight and experience to support the implementation of the university’s digital strategy,” Prevatt explained. “To achieve our vision, we need to transform both what we do and how we do it. Our invitation-only network brings a fresh perspective to any problem we’re asking them to solve.”
“Some of our digital advisors provide mentorships for our team members, really helping to embed and mature our new digital capability,” Cocks said. “We’ve had such success with the network that we want to start formalising it to track outcomes and recognise the support we’re receiving.”
The Digital Advisory Network has already helped the University of Exeter in a number of ways, including moving the university's data protection processes forward to support the development of new apps.
The University of Exeter also wants to share the network’s expertise across the university in support of its digital transformation and the university’s wider strategy for growth. The university already has a successful blog where it shares its digital story, which helps its digital advisors share their stories more widely.
“We know that our alumni members are not only working in industries at the digital cutting-edge but have expertise in areas that the university is teaching or researching,” Cocks added. “We want to make sure we are integrating with the network across our whole institution. We’ve found that by considering novel ways to access the expertise you know is out there, you can learn from those shaping good digital experiences at a time when students’ digital expectations are set before they arrive at university.”
The speakers:
- Emily Prevatt, digital operations lead, University of Exeter
- Helen Cocks, head of digital strategy and engagement, University of Exeter
Find out more about the University of Exeter’s digital strategy.
