Institutional Innovation

Institutional innovation is about the connected commons gaining a purchase on the institutions of society. In the JISC context this might be expressed as 21st century learners and institutions coming to an accommodation with each other.

While this is a process that can be traced back more than a thousand years (think Chuang Tzu and Roger Bacon), it is nuanced by the particular characteristics of today’s world where globalisation, liberalisation, innovation and participation are the dynamic context. Locally we are facing disruptions to our economies, political uncertainty, reduced institutional income, increased international participation, and epistemological engineering along baroque business lines. These are reflected in HEFCE policies and the Leitch Review with their increased emphasis on employer engagement. The demise of the short-lived DIUS and the rise of BIS, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills now in charge of universities.

Universities might align themselves in two broad ways (and within departments of any university a similar process might be seen). Some universities may position themselves as global change agents. This might be how most of the older universities see themselves, but it is by no means their exclusive preserve. Other universities might position themselves as institutional improvement facilitators.

How this positioning plays out will have both emergent and given parameters. These parameters are in tension or dialogue, as are the connected commons of 21st century learners in tension with the institutions of education.