UKCGE Joins Efficiency Exchange
UKCGE Joins Efficiency Exchange
The Efficiency exchange is an initiative run by Universities UK for organisations working in the Higher Education Sector. The Efficiency Exchange claims to enable organisations like UKCGE to discover and share ideas, good practice and resources for a smarter, stronger university sector.
The Efficiency and Modernisation Task Group was set up by Universities UK in September 2010 to identify ways in which institutions could work more efficiently.
Led by Professor Ian Diamond, the work of the Task Group has played a central role in demonstrating the higher education sector’s continued commitment to ensuring value-for-money. The importance of the project was made clear when the work was highlighted in the 2011 higher education white paper.
The findings of the Task Group were launched at the ’Efficiency in higher education’ conference hosted by Universities UK in September 2011. The report, now better known as the Diamond review, made a number of recommendations for:
- developing more coordinated approaches to procurement
- streamlining internal processes across core operational areas
- improving the use of data and benchmarking to drive efficiency
- optimising the use of shared services and outsourcing
The report also recommended the establishment of a digital ‘efficiency hub’. Building upon this, Universities UK and Jisc are delivering the Efficiency Exchange service, so-named to emphasise its function as a space for discovering and sharing knowledge. Co-funding support is being provided by HEFCE and the Leadership Foundation via the Innovation and Transformation Fund.
Ben Massey, UKCGE Marketing and Liaison Officer said:
‘We hope that we can share innovative ideas with other like-minded organisations in the HE sector. UKCGE itself represents a knowledge exchange function for its members relevant to postgraduate education and following the recent growth in engagement with its members, we expect to make further progress in engaging new and existing colleagues with new and exciting initiatives.’
