PESTLE Analysis for UK Higher Education Institutions
Function: IT/Library
Collaborative analysis performed by FLP Cohort 4, October 2009
PESTLE
Analysis
Factors
Political
Function
Potential Impact
Implication and Importance
IT
Overall impact
(High, Medium,
Low,
Undetermined)
Time Frame
(0-6 months, 6-12
months etc)
Type
(positive,
negative, u/k)
Impact
Increasing,
decreasing,
unchanged,
u/k
Relative
Importance
Critical,
important,
unimportant,
unknown
All political parties likely to target Higher
Education as an easy win for expected
spending cuts
High
0-12 months
depending on
political calendar for
election, budgets
Negative
Increasing
Critical
Changes in education policy if different party
elected
Ageing electorate may mean that manifestos
focusing on health and law and order are
more politically popular than those preserving
spending on education.
The threat of terrorism combined with
counter-terrorism measures (e.g. new UK
border authority regulations) may deter some
overseas students from attending UK HEIs
and thus increase competition amongst
universities for those who do come.
Political push for efficiency savings through
shared services and public/private
partnerships
Overseas governments may provide incentives
to welcome UK students and to prevent home
students leaving their country for education Germany promotes free HE to its students to
increase the skill base; China encourages
students to study abroad but then cascade
skills at home to reduce the need for overseas
education in the long term.
Government policy on widening access could
imply greater use of remote learning facilities,
which in turn brings a range of infrastructure
and security implications
Public policy aspirations to place UK as global
centre of innovation in the knowledge
economy (JISC Edgeless University report
2009)
Public policy on life-long learning - giving
access to education regardless of background
(JISC Edgeless University report 2009)
An increase in open access content may
generate changes within copyright & IPR law
Greater diversity of learning providers of
higher education - e.g. private institutions
with degree awarding power
Greater diversity of and thus increasing
competition from private HEIs
Impact of the Bologna Process and the
European Higher Education Area could have
an impact on areas such as program design, ,
student mobility, and quality assurance
Open source legislation? Not sure what this
is.
Economic
With decreasing direct government funding
for HE, HEIs will have to develop new income
streams
High
Social
Participation for non-manual classes has
increased from 35% to 50% in the period
from 1991-92 to 2001-2
Participation for manual classes has increased
only from 11% to 19% during the same
period
Investigate working with suppliers to find
solutions that provide HE institutions with
common interfaces between applications
regardless of which systems they are using.
HE institutions should be driving suppliers not the other way round. Isn’t this a desire
rather than a reality? – I think we’re supposed
to be looking at how technological change
could impact on our areas of responsibility
Systems such as Sharepoint have the
potential to improve internal processes and
communication via enhanced document
management and workflow systems.
Medium
Technologi
cal
Medium
High
High
6-12 months
Negative
Increasing
Critical
SAAS (Software as a Service)
Legal
Environmental
Data protection and security issues likely to
increase in importance
High
Immigration legislation pushing for more
rigorous Identity Management system within
and between education institutions
Increasing pressure to reduce energy
consumption of IT infrastructure with green
data centres, efficient cooling etc
High
High – massive
investment
required
Ongoing – no
current legal
requirement but this
may become a
reality
WEEE regulations – this is both environmental
and legal requirement to dispose of electrical
and electronic equipment in a responsible
manner with recycling of materials and secure
data removal
Medium – requires
asset management
procedures, staff
and budget
resources to
administer
Current –
regulations are
already in place
Short term –ve
impact
(financial
outlay); longer
term +ve
through
reduced power
consumption
+ve impact for
environment; ve in terms of
potential for
additional
resources
required
Increasing
impact,
lessened to
an extent if
technologies
such as
virtualisation
are adopted
Impact likely
to increase if
IT and
electrical
equipment
usage
increases
Important –
becoming
critical as
climate change
impact develops
Important
'Green' policies and regulations impacting on
businesses e.g. Carbon Reduction
Commitment, linked with financial penalties