IT spending in the UK's education sector is expected to
reach just over £2.9bn in 2004, a rise of 8% on last year's £2.7bn,
according to the Computer Weekly IT Expenditure Report, produced by
Kew Associates.
The investment will be largely driven by hardware upgrades, the
research said, which will account for 34% of all investment,
compared to 17% for software and 20% for services.
Education and skills secretary Charles Clarke has promised that
government funding for new IT, including matched funding from local
authorities, will rise to £920m by 2005-2006.
The funding will give broadband connections to all schools by 2006;
deliver digital resources into the classroom and lecture theatres
through projects such as Curriculum Online; ensure that more
teachers have personal access to computers; and help teachers and
teaching assistants use new technology to deliver higher standards,
Clarke said.
One of the key areas for IT spending in schools will be interactive
whiteboards - large, touch-sensitive boards connected to a computer
and projector which use video, animation, graphics and sound to
enhance teaching. At the Bett Education and Technology Show in
January, Clarke announced a further £25m funding for the
technology.
The spending drive comes at a time when staff working at every
level of education are becoming increasingly interested in the IT
systems available to improve teaching and help them run their
organisations more efficiently.
However, Doug Brown, divisional manager for IT in schools at the
Department for Education and Skills, said it will take time for
teachers to fully exploit the value of IT.
"The majority of teachers, including the most innovative, require
more knowledge of and confidence with IT," he told delegates at
Bett.
The government's Laptops For Teachers initiative is designed to
improve levels of confidence with IT. The scheme, which launched in
2002, aims to give two thirds of all teachers access to a computer
by 2006. About 100,000 laptops have already been distributed,
according to government figures.
In the university sector, spending is focused on enterprise
resource planning systems to handle the student administration
process and improve management information.
Some higher education institutions are using out-of-the-box human
resources and accounting modules from suppliers such as SAP and
Oracle, but the software firms have also created
university-specific modules to meet increasing demand.
Many implementations, such as an Oracle system at Liverpool John
Moores University and a SAP system at the University of Newcastle
upon Tyne, have been successful, but one high-profile failure at
Cambridge University showed that academic institutions, like
mainstream businesses, need to change processes to make ERP systems
work.
In 2001, Cambridge University's "amateur" management by committees
of academics was criticised in reports on the bungled introduction
of an Oracle accounting system.
The system, part of a project called Capsa, cost more than £9m -
almost twice the original budget.
A review of the Capsa project by two academics from other
universities concluded that it had been an "unmitigated"
failure.
How the report was produced
Information on total IT spending is collected annually from more
than 60,000 UK IT budget holders on Computer Weekly's circulation
list. This is supplemented by more detailed IT spending information
from 5,000 budget holders surveyed each year. Additional
information is sourced from the Office for National Statistics and
the Treasury.
How to buy the report
The Computer Weekly IT Expenditure Report, produced by Kew
Associates, analyses spending in 66 industry sectors covering 30
spend categories. These categories encompass a comprehensive range
of different types of hardware, software and services. A series of
reports is available containing varying levels of detail. Prices
start at £495. For more information, contact
Georgina Tucker at
Computer Weekly or telephone 01895-632163.