Information Services Committee: Terms of Reference

1. The Information Services Committee shall be a Committee of the Council and the General Board, and shall consist of:

  • (a) the Vice-Chancellor (or a duly appointed deputy) as Chair;
  • (b) three persons appointed by the Council after consultation with the General Board;
  • (c) two external members appointed by the Council;
  • (d) three persons appointed by the General Board on the nomination of the Heads of the Schools;
  • (e) two persons appointed by the Colleges’ Committee;
  • (f) one person appointed by the Library Syndicate;
  • (g) the Registrary;
  • (h) two registered students, co-opted by the Committee on the nomination of the Presidents of Cambridge Students’ Union, one of whom shall be a postgraduate student;
  • (i) two persons co-opted by the Committee, although it shall not be obligatory for the Committee to exercise this power.

2. The Director of Information Services shall be the executive officer of the Committee.

3. The appointment of members in classes (b), (c), (d), (e) and (f) shall be made in the Michaelmas Term for periods of four years from 1 January following. Coopted members in classes (h) and (i) shall serve until 31 December of the year following that in which they are co-opted, provided that if a member in class (h) ceases to be a registered student they shall thereupon cease to be a member in that class.

4. The Registrary shall appoint the Secretary of the Committee, in consultation with the Chair.

5. It shall be the duty of the Committee:

  • a. to establish and keep under review, subject to the approval of the Council and the General Board and, where appropriate, the Colleges, strategies for information services, and the shape and provision of services, across the University and Colleges in support of research, teaching and administration;
  • b. to promote the effective and efficient implementation of the strategies for information services where appropriate throughout the University and Colleges, to advise on developments in information technology and its implementation, including the sharing of experience and solutions;
  • c. to establish mechanisms to ascertain the information services requirements of users across the University and Colleges, and ensure that these requirements inform the strategies under (a) above;
  • d. to ensure, through the Director of Information Services, that any policies, facilities, and services provided by the University Information Services are operating effectively and are fit for purpose, and to approve general principles for the allocation of resources and priorities in the use of information technology facilities;
  • e. to review and propose the budget for the University Information Services, on advice from the Director of Information Services;
  • f. to be responsible for ensuring that appropriate project and budgetary management and control mechanisms are in place for such major information systems and technology projects as the Council or the General Board may from time to time determine, and to ensure that reporting and accountability are in place for the funds allocated for such projects;
  • g. to oversee the management of risks relating to information services as required from time to time by the Council or the General Board, including the determination of local risk ownership for IT resources and the review of cyber security incidents across the University;
  • h. to ensure that all centrally provided systems and services provide value for money;
  • i. to set, consulting the Councils of the Schools, Colleges and other institutions as necessary, minimum standards of service to be provided;
  • j. to be responsible for the regulation and security of the use of information technology facilities within the University, and of such computing facilities in College institutions as may be designed for this purpose from time to time by the appropriate College authorities concerned, and for this purpose to make, or amend, and publish rules, subject to approval by the competent authority, and to impose on a person infringing one or more of those rules either or both of the following penalties:
    • i. the suspension of authorisation to use computing resources for such a period as the Information Services Committee shall determine;
    • ii. a fine not exceeding £175.
  • k. To make an annual report to the Council and the General Board and to the Senior Tutors’ and Bursars’ Committees, to include reporting on the strategies for information services.

6. In fulfilling its terms of reference and mindful of the University’s Code of Practice on Freedom of Speech and the need to have particular regard for the importance of free speech within the law, the Committee will consider whether any decisions that it takes, on policy or other matters, could directly or indirectly (and positively or negatively) affect free speech within the law and record in its decisions any significant points arising from these deliberations.

7. The Committee shall establish sub sub-committees, or other bodies reporting to it, as it considers necessary effectively to discharge its duties.