The University Digital Strategy sets out the future vision for digital, articulates how that vision supports the University's strategic goals, and provides a roadmap of the key elements needed to support Strategy 2030 and other strategies and initiatives.
Over the past 50 years, digital has been a fundamental part of improvement, transformation, and resilience at the University of Edinburgh. As the University Community works towards delivering Strategy 2030, the digital environment will continue to be a key component in all aspects of our teaching, research, and professional services.  
The development of the University Digital Strategy has been led and co-produced by people throughout the entire University of Edinburgh community. Academic and professional services colleagues participated in workshops and road shows and other staff and students were invited to join in through show-and-tell sessions, surveys, and two full University-wide consultations. 

 

For more information, please visit https://uoe.sharepoint.com/sites/UoEDigitalStrategy

 

Short animation video on the University's Digital Strategy

Enable every individual member of our University communities to have the appropriate and accessible digital services, tools, training, and skills they need to thrive in their teaching, learning, research, or other business activities. The People theme addresses accessibility, equality diversity & inclusion (EDI), and data & digital skills along with improving our digital services through human-centred design, continuous service improvement, and being secure by design.  


  • Ensure digital is an enabler for research excellence. 
  • Be driven by the needs of researchers, informed by the strategies pursued by their communities, and fit for purpose in the research environments within which they are deployed. 
  • Underpin the University's Research and Innovation strategy efforts to develop new data-driven research methodologies and techniques to capture, process, and analyse data; and use them in all our research activities while working to the highest ethical and security standards and responsible research and innovation principles. 

  • Support greater consistency and rationalisation of course and programme structures, methods, and support for course and programme design. 
  • Support a holistic and strategic approach to the design and management of assessment and feedback. 
  • Support hybrid teaching and learning and greater use of blended learning approaches. 

  • Contribute to the University’s goal to become net zero carbon by 2040 by having a continuous programme of sustainable IT to reduce our carbon footprint and the impact that digital has on the environment. 
  • Be a best practice centre and global leader in the use of Information Governance, Data Ethics, and AI. 
  • Provide the widest possible open access to our wisdom and knowledge. 

Our University Digital Estate is a key strategic asset. A good digital experience is key to student and staff satisfaction and to making the University more resilient to future shocks. We have many centrally managed digital systems and platforms alongside a wide range of small, locally delivered systems in Schools and Colleges.  Our vision for the University Digital Estate is to: 

  • Be the gateway to University data, accelerating the production and dissemination of information and knowledge. 
  • Protect the University from known and emerging cyber threats. 
  • Align our strategy and vision to an integrated University Physical and Digital Estate that will offer a seamless and flexible experience when working or studying in person or virtually. 
  • Make our University Digital Estate financially and operationally sustainable in the long term. 

In addition to looking forward, the Strategy is about taking care of the essentials. There are multiple perspectives across the community on what “Getting the Basics Right” means, these include: 

  • Ensure our processes, practices, and physical and digital assets work to a high standard. 
  • Simplify some of our key processes along with the underpinning IT systems, making them consistent and integrated. 
  • Understand user needs in advance of development or change to a service. 
  • Everyone having a good knowledge of accessibility and why it is so important. 

This article was published on