Leadership Foundation

Internationalisation

Thursday 3 May 2012

Overview

The Leadership Foundation periodically arranges a number of events that we think will be of significant interest to higher education academics and professional services staff involved in developing the international or internalisation agenda for their HEI. Our sprinng 2012 conference covered Internationalisation: levering strategic advantage from IT and was developed in collaboration with UCISA, the professional body for IT staff in higher education.

At this conference the participants were given the opportunity to find out how IT systems and software can be used to ease the challenges of operating outside of the UK. IT is often seen as the ‘servant’ supporting universities’ internationalisation activities and occasionally the ‘obstacle’ to effective internationalisation when circumstances and systems in other countries do not align easily with those in the UK. This one-day event recognised that what enables effective IT operations to be in the UK, must be applied and delivered just as studiously, as part of the international strategy in order to achieve success overseas. Internationalisation: levering strategic advantage from IT considered how IT can be used in all areas of university operations overseas and in the UK. It addressed the challenges and explored emerging opportunities from the multiple perspectives necessary for effective and sustainable innovation.

Delegates heard from and met Ben Maddox, vice-president of Global Technical Services, New York University. He described how IT at NYU has been developed to support a student body studying in 5 sites in Manhattan, and four other continents around the world in a presentation entitled IT: International Potential. We also introduced Steve Williams, the CIO of Newcastle University, whose talk, IT: The Global Challenges, shared the strategic IT issues around developing Newcastle’s new Medical School in Malaysia.