JISC institutional preparedness study for access management

JISC is officially launching its UK Access Management Federation for UK HE and FE institutions in January 2007. Educational institutions throughout the UK will be invited to join the Federation and adopt new technologies such as Shibboleth. The Athens service in its current form will not be centrally funded by JISC after July 2008. JISC policy and options for institutions are available at www.jisc.ac.uk/federation.html.

JISC is conducting an "institutional preparedness study" to assess institutions’ awareness of, and readiness and willingness for, federated access management. All UK HE institutions, and FE institutions in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are in the scope of this study. The results of the study will inform the JISC's transition programme, including outreach and support activities for institutions.

A market research company will be conducting a telephone survey of all institutions, starting 11 September. The survey will cover institutional awareness of federated access management, information strategies and adoption plans, use of Athens, supporting information systems and barriers and issues to adoption.

If your institutional would like to nominate a contact for participating in the survey please email contact details (including role and telephone number) to access@mindsetresearch.co.uk.

Where there is no single contact for both technical issues (directory services, authentication mechanisms, etc) and non-technical questions (Athens usage, institutional structure and plans, etc) multiple nominated contacts would be appreciated. Those institutions which nominated a contact following the JISC's letter to institutions and Vice-Chancellors earlier this year need only respond if that contact has changed.

Thank you for your support with this study.

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Nicole Harris

Programme Manager

JISC London Office

138 – 142 The Strand
London

WC2R 1HH

Tel: 020 7848 1802
Mob: 07734 058308
Web: www.jisc.ac.uk