Global IT strategic plan for universities in Spain

Many reports show up every year to measure the development and social use of the Information Technologies (IT) in given territorial areas [1, 2]. They exhibit key aspects of reality using a set of indicators. On consolidated reports one can find more qualitative information through the indicator evolution over years. The knowledge society, which Europe drew in Lisbon, leans on a modern higher education system with innovative methods and resources. Universities, that were pioneer in introducing computation and Internet for research, have been walking fast adopting IT also for student instruction, management and government. In Spain, this evolution was sometimes lacked of reflection and evaluation. For this reason, the IT Working Group of the Spanish Association of University Rectors (CRUE in Spanish set of initials) drove in 2004 the confection of an inquest in order to achieve a global assessment of IT in universities [3]. The results showed that the Spanish Universities, in general, adopt a compromised aim with the introduction and use of IT, but frequently it is more reactive than proactive, more improvised than planned. In this paper we explain the work developed inside the IT Working Group of the CRUE, with members from different universities and different knowledge areas that have been working in the next approach of the IT inquest. We resolved to introduce an IT Strategic Plan, shared by all universities in Spain. The aim is to have a flexible but strong tool to guide the IT department on the politic priorities.Peer Reviewe