The Digital Advisory Network (DAN) was created in June 2022 to support our 2030 Digital Strategy by bringing together experts from across industries to help us with our ambitious plans to become the most accessible and connected university destination for any user.
In addition to advising and coaching individual colleagues within the Digital team, members of the network provide subject matter expertise, feedback, advice, and guidance on the implementation of the University’s 2030 Digital Strategy.
The inspiration behind our Digital Advisory Network
It’s estimated that Higher Education (HE) is generally about 10 years behind other UK public sectors in terms of digital transformation. The University’s Strategy 2030 is ambitious, and Digital is a key enabler of it. We need to transform our digital capabilities in order to deliver on the strategy, starting with the basics.
There are a range of current and emerging challenges for HE, including:
- With the fixing of student fees, this income stream will no longer meet our costs or the increasing demand for high-quality services
- Following the pandemic, globally people want to experience education differently.
Through gathering insight, we have identified three primary problems to solve through the Digital Strategy in response to these challenges:
- Competitiveness – How do we make the experience the best and most accessible in our peer group?
- Efficiency – How do we enable people to get stuff done?
- Opportunity – How do we generate more income and/or margin as well as maximise our reputation?
We need to iteratively solve these three problems and introduce new foundation digital capabilities including tech, skills and ways of working to help overcome the challenges HE faces and help in achieving the University’s Strategy 2030.
The Digital Advisory Network is an integral part of not only the Digital Strategy implementation, but also the University as a whole. The DAN members and Digital team meet regularly to discuss opportunities and challenges, and to share best practices and get advice from industry experts, and also discuss the latest digital developments in both HE and their industry, helping the University to be more connected across multiple industries.
We have a vibrant private LinkedIn group where we share our combined resources, insights and the latest news. Members can comment and share their own developments so that all members can help and support the University and be a part of the continued conversation.
Monthly Events
Each month, we hold a one-hour virtual session on a particular topic to explore and workshop the developing trends in digital, and our own stages of development in these areas. These valuable sessions enable open discussions where we ask for support, advice and guidance on how we can progress in specific areas.
This year we have held events on the following topics:
- Digital Upskilling
- Introducing our Product Team
- The Latest Roadmaps and Updates
- UoE Digital Hubs – Streatham & Penryn
- Shaping the Next Six Months of Digital Events
Some of our upcoming topics are:
- How to Launch an App to 29,000 Students & Beyond
- Gathering User Research
- Developing our Digital Strategy with Digital Upskilling
- How to Integrate Mental Health & Wellbeing into our Digital Strategy
On-site visits
Since its inception, we have been delighted to have visits from a number of our DAN members. These visits have included workshops, brainstorming sessions, and more general visits to meet the team and better understand what we do. A number of our Enablement Leads have also visited members nationally when in their local area which is a welcome opportunity to see ‘real world’ situations and environments.
This has helped not only with our Digital team development, but also the understanding of the importance and value that our DAN members bring to our Digital Strategy and goals for the future.
Stacy H Visit – January 2023
Why join the Digital Advisory Network?
We asked a number of our members why they chose to join the network and what they would like to experience as part of this initiative – here are some responses:
“Insight into how others are solving problems in the digital space. Supporting UoE in meeting it’s strategic objectives. Meeting people with diverse digital skills to learn and develop my own capabilities and knowledge.”
“Being able to advise, and share insight and experiences…keen to be more hands-on where possible. What can the DAN actually help to deliver that might help UoE Digital deliver against current strategy and goals”
“Ability to contribute to the development of the University, and to support the Digital team. And in turn, continue to learn about how digital transformation/change is possible and can be delivered in a university context”
What’s next for the DAN?
A number of members from the network will be sharing their expertise through featuring at the upcoming Times Higher Education Digital Universities UK 2024 event in April, hosted by the University of Exeter.
We have over 30 members and this number continues to grow month on month. We also have a number of members who are University of Exeter alumni and we are in the process of recruiting more.
We have also recently begun to invite a number of our Digital Advisors to work with members of our Digital team on a 1-1 basis, by offering specialised support and guidance to help our team. This is an exciting and important new development for the network and will be an invaluable resource towards the growth of the Digital Strategy.
If you are interested in joining our Digital Advisory Network or would like more information, please contact us at uoedan@exeter.ac.uk.