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Digital Strategy Committee

1.      Purpose

The Digital Strategy Committee is a committee of University Executive Board. The Committee has executive responsibility for the development and implementation of the University’s Digital Strategic Delivery Plan. This will include providing strategic direction, accountability and authorisation. The Digital Strategy exists to further the University’s overarching strategic mission in relation to Teaching and Research and the Committee will work in close partnership with the University’s applicable governance structures.

2.      Responsibilities

Without limiting the general responsibilities as described above:

• To maintain responsibility for the University’s Digital Strategic Delivery Plan and Implementation Plan (replacing the IT Strategy & Implementation Plan), providing University Executive Board with advice and guidance on progress, resourcing and impact. 
• To allocate resources within budget in support of its Purpose on behalf of University Executive Board.
• To take joint responsibility for the digital elements of the University’s strategy, through collaboration with the relevant committees within the University’s governance structure.
• To act as the Design Authority to oversee the University’s digital infrastructure, application and information landscape.
• To champion and support the embedding of digital activities across all academic disciplines and professional services throughout the University, including through an agreed Communication Strategy.  
• To develop and support a governance structure for the implementation of the Digital Strategic Delivery Plan
• To maintain overall responsibility for risks & issues, benefits and budget in relation to the Digital Strategic Delivery Plan and IT services
• To provide a link to the Finance and the Audit and Risk Committee to ensure compliance with legislation, policy and procedures.   
• Provide a quality assurance role for the Digital Strategic Delivery Plan and Implementation Plan
• To approve University IT Policies and Codes of Practice
• To set the strategic direction and priorities for the University’s IT Service.
• To oversee risk management in respect of the delivery of the Digital Strategic Delivery Plan, delivering regular reports as required to UEB and/or PRC.
• To monitor the effectiveness of the overall IT governance and risk management framework
• To receive and deliver reports and updates to the University Executive Board as required including an annual report.
• To establish such sub-groups as may be required to deliver specific areas of the Committee’s remit.
• To receive reports and updates from its sub-committees and where relevant from other University Executive Board committees
• The Chair of the Committee is accountable for the decisions of the Committee which includes but is not limited to decisions with a financial impact and will liaise with the chairs of other committees and other budget holders where there is overlap in responsibility.

 3.      Delegated Authority

 The delegated financial authority of the Committee is £2 million, within the budget allocated to the Committee, or as stated in the Financial Regulations.

 4.      General

 4.1       Membership

Chair	Faculty Pro-Vice Chancellor
Professional Services	Chief Financial Officer Chief Digital Officer Faculty Operations Director
Student Representative	Nominated by the Students’ Union.
Nominated Members	Two members to be selected through the Committee Membership Selection Process.

 
The Digital Futures Programme Manager, the Director of Service Design and the Chief Information Security Officer may be in attendance at meetings as appropriate but are not members of the Committee.

 The Chief Digital Officer will ensure that a representative from each of UNNC and UNM is advised of any business that pertains to UNNC or UNM and have the opportunity to feed into the work of the Committee.

 4.2       Chair and support

The Committee will be convened and chaired by the Faculty Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Arts. The Secretary will be supplied by Governance and Executive Support. 

 4.3       Frequency of meetings

The Committee will meet bi-monthly and the Chair shall call additional meetings where necessary.  The Committee shall delegate activity to sub-groups or committees as appropriate.

 4.4       Deputies

Members of the Committee are not able to nominate a deputy to attend the meeting on their behalf.

 4.5       Quorum

A quorum will be half the regular membership plus one. 

 4.6       Term of Office

The term of office for the members selected by the Committee Membership Selection Group is two years. Some of these members may be reappointed for a further year with the agreement of the Chair in order to maintain an appropriate balance between turnover and experience on the Committee.  The term of office for the representative nominated by the Students’ Union is one year.  Other members are ex-officio.

 4.7       Reporting and Review

The Committee will report to University Executive Board, Finance Committee and Audit and Risk Committee as required. The effectiveness and the membership of the Committee will be reviewed annually.

 The following committees/groups will report into the Committee:

 Digital Futures Programme Group

Student Administration Continuous Improvement Board

Education Administration Continuous Improvement Board

 

 (Terms of Reference ratified at Digital Strategy Committee 10 October 2023)

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