Discover and share good practice for smarter working universities

Higher Education Degree Datacheck – Prospects – case study – June 2016

Degree fraud is an international problem but Britain is the European capital for bogus universities with twice as many fake institutions as genuine ones, and more appearing online daily. The problem is compounded by the increasing number of degree mills who charge anything from £10 upwards for a fake certificate.

Laboratory sharing to improve rock deformation research

A view on shared services from the United States where an ever-growing group of scientists are seeking to integrate rock deformation labs from across the nation into one shared national facility. This was originally published in EOS magazine.
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North’s first shared data centre for education and research secured by Jisc

A shared data centre for the north of England has been secured by Jisc to aid collaboration and the sharing of large data sets. Among the first tenants are Liverpool University, Sheffield Hallam University and the universities of Sheffield and Leeds.

Impact of high performance computing facility revealed by N8 partnership

N8's high performance computing (HPC) facility has led to more than 90 collaborations between universities and businesses to date, a report by the research partnership has revealed. The document highlighting the impact N8 is having on the north's economy says the N8 HPC has featured in 84 grant applications totalling £59.8m and its use noted in 377 published research papers.
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Partnership expands for Jisc’s open research data shared service

Jisc's research data shared service pilot now involves 17 partners after four more institutions joined in with the project. A blog by Jisc's Rachel Bruce says the service aims to serve a variety of needs, including providing repositories for deposit and access to research data and encouraging data reuse in the long term.

HERBi shared services tool unveils enhanced functionality

The web-based HERBi tool which allows higher education institutions to explore the benefits of sharing services is now bigger and better. Project manager Simon Perks tells us about these improvements, which aim to make HERBi more responsive to the needs of users across the sector.

Implementation of Cost-Sharing Exemption in Universities

N8 universities have been working towards utilisation of the VAT Cost-Sharing Exemption (CSE) for sharing of equipment through the development of an approved Cost Sharing Group (CSG) model. By using an existing shared asset - N8 high performance computing - as a model facility for setting up a CSG, the N8 hoped to demonstrate its value and viability.

Cost sharing benefits outweighed by risks and costs, says N8 Research Partnership

A report by the N8 Research Partnership concludes the benefits of university 'cost sharing exemption' are outweighed by risks and costs, after running a cost sharing group for universities which share equipment. This press release produced by N8 following the two year project claims that too many legal and financial hurdles exist

Ensemble purchasing: mighty oaks from little acorns grow

Smaller institutions in London are joining forces to get bigger bang for their buck from procurement. Kat Humphries introduces Ensemble Purchasing, a new cost sharing group dedicated to procurement.
HESA's Paul Clark, Jisc's Paul Feldman and the QAA's Douglas Blackstock (L to R)

Agencies join forces to provide better services for higher education

The M5 group, made up of Jisc, HESA and the QAA, recently formed to help create long term solutions to the issues being faced by universities. Dr Paul Feldman, chief executive of Jisc, explains how the partnership will work.