In November 2017, Professor Sir Christopher Snowden outlined plans to re-shape the University and move to a five-faculty structure. A number of activities are now underway to ensure that the new Faculty structure is in place by 1 August 2018. Work to align our Professional Services to the new Faculty structure will continue through 2018 and 2019.
We will be posting regular updates on SUSSED, and a copy of this information will also be sent to senior managers, our Unions, and our colleagues at SUSU so that they can facilitate sharing within their own departments and networks.
Systems to support our new structure
An important part of our preparations for the restructure is to ensure that our IT systems are updated to reflect the new five-faculty structure.
Technical experts from iSolutions have been working with systems owners from across the University to conduct a thorough analysis of the impact of the change.
Their priority is to ensure that our systems continue to deliver the experience that our students and staff expect during the move to the new Faculty structure.
The main focus has been on the three key systems that store our most important data: Banner (student records), Agresso (finances) and ResourceLink (HR).
Many of our other systems are set up to regularly extract data from these three key systems – for example, Blackboard, our e-learning platform, draws student data from Banner – and the team is working to ensure that there is no impact on these links after the change.
A period of significant testing is planned by iSolutions before our systems change, and different groups of users will be invited to take part.
There should be no impact on students and staff while the systems are being changed, and the team are planning implementation dates to ensure there is minimal disruption to our key activities, such as confirmation and clearing. Content on the University’s external website is also being reviewed and will be updated by 1 August.
As we get closer to moving to the new Faculty structure, we will be publishing more extensive guidance and FAQs so that colleagues understand more about what’s happening and what to do if they encounter any problems.
iSolutions Business Relationship Managers
iSolutions has been considering the changes needed to ensure Business Relationship Managers (BRMs) are appropriately aligned to the new structure. BRMs build a crucial strategic link between iSolutions and our Faculties and Professional Services, ensuring that our future IT requirements are understood and planned.
You can view which BRMs will support each Faculty and Professional Service, effective from 1 August, here. This support will be reviewed when workloads in each of the new Faculties are better understood.
For more information
You can find our previous restructure SUSSED updates here.
During this change programme, some information that is sensitive for external audiences or considered commercial in confidence will be posted on SharePoint and requires a staff log-in. To meet our commitment to transparency with our student community, wherever possible this information will be shared with the Students’ Union President and sabbatical officers.
If you have questions about the Faculty restructure, please email: [email protected]. Colleagues in the Strategy Implementation Team manage this mailbox.
If you would like to contact a member of the executive team about the restructure, you can email either Professor Mandy Fader ([email protected]) or Ian Dunn ([email protected]).
