More responsive student support and a more accessible campus: the digital term ahead at UCL

Most of the technology that keeps a university running is invisible by design. You tend to notice it only when a system is slow, a lecture theatre will not connect, or a form asks for something it really ought to know already. The rest of the time it just works.

Keeping it that way, while incrementally making it better, is the task of UCL's eight Digital Portfolios.

Our Portfolios come together termly for two days of planning known as Termly Increment (TI). The event brings together over 350 people to align priorities, work through dependencies and commit to a shared plan for the term ahead – part of around £42m of change work each year.

The most recent TI, which took place in April, set the direction for the coming months. The improvements below cover some of the highlights, building on a productive previous term that involved cutting award set-up for new research projects by roughly eight weeks across 17 projects, campus wireless coverage rising from 80% to 99%, and more than £300,000 saved by upgrading or retiring ageing systems.

What is changing this term?

UCL’s new Student Enquiries and Support Service (SESS)

We are bringing student and applicant enquiries into a single platform this term. SESS will provide UCL students with a more joined-up experience to enable better responsiveness.

Supporting digital exams

The means for supporting digital examinations are being simplified through a programme of work to standardise their delivery. This includes continuing large-scale digital examinations, trialling Moodle-based exams, and evaluating new approaches to moving paper exams into digital formats.

Over time, this will create a more consistent and streamlined assessment experience for students and staff, while reducing complexity across multiple systems.

Expanding on-demand learning capability

Panopto, UCL's lecture-capture service, is being expanded into more teaching spaces across campus too, so a greater share of what happens in the lecture room can be returned to later.

Students and staff should also notice greater flexibility in how teaching is timetabled across the term.

Supporting research – and network performance

Building on last term's progress, upgrades to Worktribe and its integration with document tools such as SharePoint and Harmon.ie are intended to reduce award set-up time by around eight weeks, so projects can get under way sooner.

Underpinning that is a significant programme of upgrades to UCL's high-performance computing and data-centre infrastructure, alongside stronger protection for sensitive data and new cloud-based research capabilities.

We are also delivering the installation of new datacentre network infrastructure, important groundwork that will prepare UCL for access to faster and more secure networking performance.

Smoother, more consistent ways of working

We are making several improvements this term to enable everyday processes to be more consistent for staff. The continued rollout of the Education Administration and Student Experience (EASE) Programme will bring standardised ways of working and role-based system access to additional faculties, while a consistent, faculty-wide digital process for accelerated increments will reduce the amount of manual effort needed.

A campus that works for everyone

MobileConnect assistive-listening technology is arriving in 25 more teaching and event spaces this term, making it easier to follow what is being said for anyone who uses a hearing aid.

Behind the scenes, improved space-utilisation tools and a new central system, MyCampus, will help UCL understand and plan its estate more intelligently. That work has already saved £230,000, with a further £115,000 expected next year.

The bigger picture

Across its portfolios, UCL expects to deliver around £44m in cumulative cashable benefits by 2029/30 – including retiring software contracts UCL no longer needs and using its buildings and teaching spaces more efficiently. Around £7.7m has already been realised.

Our Portfolios have more deliverables underway – see the full set of plans in our TI Highlights presentation for Term 3.