05 May 2026 - UCISA26 Ian Wilson Reflections
With Fife College nominated for a UCISA Digital Transformation Award for our new Dunfermline City Campus, our Head of Digital managed to secure me a place at the Leadership Conference through the Plus One bursary scheme — an opportunity I was determined to make the most of. There was a personal draw too. I used to live in Liverpool, and getting to rediscover a city I once knew well was an unexpected bonus on top of everything else.
The delegate list is predominantly HE, which as an FE attendee you notice — but the conversations and sessions are relevant regardless of your sector. The How to Network session was particularly well-suited to first-time attendees like me — practical, immediately useful, and something I'd point any first-timer towards. The keynote from the CIO of Buckinghamshire New University was outstanding; I'd recommend it to anyone in a leadership role in education IT. The JISC AI session provided practical thinking on where things are heading, and didn't lose sight of the FE context in doing so.
Meeting suppliers — both existing contacts I'd only ever seen on Teams, and new ones I hadn't come across before — was exactly what I'd hoped for. There's a lot you don't get from a Teams call.
Liverpool Cathedral made for an unforgettable awards dinner venue. We didn't win, but being nominated felt like real recognition of what the team has built at Fife College. Celebrating alongside peers who understand the effort behind digital transformation in education made it a night to remember.
What I'm Taking Back
The most reassuring thing I took away was that our challenges aren't unique. The same pressures — stretched teams, constrained budgets, the ever-present threat of cyber security, and figuring out how to adopt AI responsibly — came up again and again across FE and HE alike. For FE colleges specifically, the gap between what vendors offer and what we can realistically afford remains a significant barrier — familiar to anyone leading technology in an FE college.
There's a point worth making about FE representation at events like this. The conference is understandably HE-focused — in its sessions, its award categories, and its judging. But FE institutions are delivering impressive digital services on much smaller budgets and with much leaner teams. That's a story worth sharing, and I think it's on us in the FE sector to show up and tell it. More FE colleagues submitting sessions and getting on stage would help redress that balance and show what the sector is genuinely capable of.
I came back energised and full of ideas — the hard part now is finding the time to act on them all. If you work in FE IT and haven't considered the UCISA Leadership Conference, I'd strongly encourage you to. The Plus One bursary scheme is also worth knowing about — it's exactly the kind of initiative that gives FE colleagues a chance to engage with the wider sector, and my place simply wouldn't have happened without it.
