With the dust settling from our time at the AUA Annual Conference, it was great to attend and sponsor the event over the two days and reflect on what a fantastic event it was. Hosted at University Place, University of Manchester, the conference gave stage to a plethora of first class speakers, who spent the two days discussing the future of the Higher Education landscape after Brexit.
Some great conversations took place regarding the frustrations many organisations are having adopting technologies within higher education. The eShare stand was busy with attendees keen to find out more about what BoardPacks can offer their board and how MeetingSquared can help other teams and committees throughout their organisations become more efficient.
The talks over the two days covered a wide range of topics, all tied to the overarching theme of Brexit. One in particular came from Alison Johns, CEO Designate from Advanced HE, on how the higher education sector plans to tackle the changing landscape of compliance and potential regulatory changes on the horizon. A key point made was that regulators are becoming less interested about the processes to stay compliant, while the outcomes are being scrutinised more fiercely. Following on from this Alison Johns said that a university’s best friend is going to be “data, data, data”, as the regulators want to see evidence of the outcomes. This is where eShare believe they can help organisations, by providing a solution that will record the data required in a secure yet easily accessible manner.
The conference offered a fantastic opportunity to meet administrators from multiple organisations and find out what the consensus was regarding governance and digitalisation in their institution. From talking with the attendees across the two days, it was clear that many institutions were interested in digitising their meetings and going paperless, however, many feared that their less tech savvy board members might be less inclined to move away from paper meeting packs. It showed a genuine impasse within the higher education sector where the need for solutions such as BoardPacks is developing matched by an equal force of stubbornness or lack of budget.
With this in mind, Mark Wilson, eShare’s Business Development Manager said:
“From conversations over the two days, it was clear to see many professionals within education are frustrated with the lack of technology provided to support their role. Discussing a few of our case studies and highlighting how we have helped many other organisations within education and as being a preferred supplier on the JISC Framework for Board and Committee Papers they were energised with the knowledge that there is technology available to improve governance as well as saving them time and money. In fact, the ease of use when accessing papers on a tablet or mobile device led many to ask why such solutions are not being implemented to improve security and meeting efficiency quicker.”
With the big Brexit date approaching in less than a year at time of writing, March 29th 2019, it will be interesting to see how higher education adapts to the upcoming challenges and whether the need for easily accessible data is really the future. If this is what is in store, eShare is proud to offer a solution that will provide the evidence and transparency needed to give HE organisations peace of mind knowing they have not only the evidence but capacity to stay fully compliant with any current or future regulations.
If you would like more information on how we can help you improve your meetings and governance then please get in touch.
