Digital Governance Unit

Last updated 17 September 2025

Effective digital services underpin everything we do as a University, from teaching and research to administration and student support. Today, these services are increasingly delivered by teams of specialists across the University, and the University is investing in cross-cutting strategic programmes through the Digital Transformation Programme.

To make sure these services are effective, coordinated, compliant, and secure, and we continue to innovate and evolve our approach appropriately in response to rapid developments in the digital landscape, it is important that clear and consistent approaches are adopted. Robust digital governance is key to making this happen and to maintaining our reputation as a leading global university. This forms the basis for the new Digital Governance Unit (DGU).

What is the DGU?

The DGU is a new business function at the University of Oxford that will be based within UAS alongside IT Services, the People Department, Estates Services, and all other UAS departments, and support the wider University.

The DGU will report into Professor Anne Trefethen as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (PVC) Digital until the new Chief Digital and Information Officer (CDIO), David White, starts his new role later in 2025. The DGU and IT Services will then both be part of the CDIO’s portfolio, with the CDIO joining the Vice-Chancellor's leadership team.

Organisational chart showing the structures of key roles that report to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Digital), Anne Trefethen, who steps down on 31 December 2025. Her role is replaced by Chief Digital & Information Officer (CDIO), David White (start date TBC)

If you would like a copy of the organisation chart above in a different format, please contact dgu@digital.ox.ac.uk and we will be happy to help. The chart shows the key roles and teams that will report to the incoming Chief Digital & Information Officer (CDIO), including the senior management team within the DGU that will report to Stuart Lee and the teams in IT Services that will report to Mike Fraser.

When will the DGU be established?

The DGU will be formally launched on Monday 29 September 2025. Information will be shared with all staff on Monday 22 September, in the University Bulletin.

Why do we need a function like the DGU?

The DGU will have an important governance and coordination role across the University’s digital services and activity. It will play a key part in enabling the digital ambitions set out in the University’s draft Strategic Plan, so that we continue to evolve our culture, processes, and technology to meet the challenges and embrace the opportunities of the digital era.

The University’s Digital Governance Framework places responsibility for our digital investments into five digital portfolios (Research Portfolio, Education Portfolio, Administration Portfolio, Engagement & Dissemination Portfolio, and Technology Portfolio). The DGU will be accountable to Information and Digital Committee (IDC), which oversees the allocation of block funding to the portfolio committees, based on business cases and the University’s strategic priorities.

The portfolio committees are responsible for prioritisation of their overall budgets, and the alignment of strategy and budgets with their user communities’ needs. The DGU will support the portfolios by providing consistent standards, processes and approaches to ensure that our investments deliver a coherent set of digital services that add value and meet business need.

Who will run the DGU?

The new department will be led by Stuart Lee, who is currently the Acting Chief Information Officer (Acting CIO). Stuart will take up the new role of Director of the Digital Governance Unit & Deputy CDIO. He will report to the Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Digital) until David White takes up the new role of Chief Digital & Information Officer (CDIO), later this year.

Digital Portfolio leadership

Education Portfolio

Committee Chair: Professor Freya Johnston, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Education)
Portfolio Lead: Elaine Aitken
Portfolio Manager: Nick Perry

Research Portfolio

Committee Chair: Professor Patrick Grant, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research)
Portfolio Lead: Jolyon Harris
Portfolio Manager: Cristina Iturralde

Technology Portfolio

Committee Chair: Professor David De Roure
Portfolio Lead and Manager: Liz O’Farrell

Engagement & Dissemination

Committee Chair: Richard Ovenden
Portfolio Lead & Manager: James Mundey

Administration Portfolio

Committee Chair: Gill Aitken, Registrar
Portfolio Lead: Alex Bush
Portfolio Manager: Naomi Hood

What will the DGU be responsible for?

The DGU will support, monitor, assure and innovate. It will:

Embed Oxford’s digital governance framework, and coordinate activity across the five digital portfolios, so that investments are aligned with Oxford’s strategic priorities. This will include ensuring that cross-portfolio dependencies are identified on a timely basis and actively managed
Enable the shift to a more agile, continuous improvement approach to service delivery which keeps end-users at the heart of digital services
Nurture Oxford’s digital culture, through partnership and collaboration. This will include supporting the implementation of recommendations from the Strategic Review of Professional Services, and helping to deliver shared infrastructure services within the University
Ensure appropriate architecture and standards to support the coherent, secure solution design of digital services.

The new unit will aim to reduce the burden of change on departments and divisions. It will be key to ensuring integrated planning and engagement around new technologies and developments that impact multiple digital portfolios, working closely with Portfolio Leads/Managers. It will also actively manage risk and ensure that structures are in place for stakeholders to be appropriately consulted and informed.

What will the DGU do?

Here is a visual summary of the new unit’s four key pillars of activity, which are:

Process, guidance and assurance, and governance
Architectural design authority
Digital transformation and change
Strategic partner and vendor management.

Diagram with the words Digital Governance Unit in the centre, surrounded by a doughnut shape made up of four different-coloured jigsaw pieces, each showing one of the four key pillars of activity for the DGU in text.

In the first phase of its development, the DGU will focus on:

Active coordination of cross-portfolio dependencies and risk management
Ensuring that process guidance, assurance, and governance are proportionate and fit for purpose, and simplifying where possible
Advancing our Enterprise Architecture (EA), User Experience (UX), and Security by Design (SbD)
Ensuring effective strategic partner and vendor management
Supporting digital transformation and driving change towards a service and product mindset
Supporting the implementation of recommendations from the Strategic Review of Professional Services.

Will the DGU support the development of digital skills?

As part of its role in supporting the University to shape and embed a digital working culture that is relevant, adaptable and sustainable, the DGU will provide oversight of the training and development offer available to staff. Blaine Roissetter, currently Head of Digital Capabilities in IT Services, will be seconded to the DGU to work closely with key stakeholders and existing training providers, to develop this work.

The initial phase of Blaine's secondment will focus on divisional and UAS priorities for digital literacy, which are likely to include supporting the effective provision of Generative AI tools and the implementation of recommendations from the Strategic Review of Professional Services, and identifying opportunities to embed automation and process improvement.

How will the DGU be resourced? Is UAS expanding to accommodate the new unit?

No new staff have been recruited. Teams moving to the DGU already exist within other areas, mainly as part of the Digital Transformation programme and IT Services, but their scope and focus will be realigned to the new unit’s objectives. Briefing and discussion sessions have been held with all staff moving to the new unit over the summer, and team heads and administrative colleagues have been closely involved in putting the new unit in place.

Teams within the DGU will be:

Digital Assurance (led by Ian Teasdale)
Digital Architecture and Innovation (led by Dave Smith)
Digital Transformation Programme (led by Lou Carson)
CRM Programme, during its formative stages (led by Natasha Heaton)
Strategic Digital Partnerships (led by Mark Bramwell, CDIO at the Saïd Business School, who will be seconded 0.1 FTE to the DGU)

What is happening in those parts of IT Services that are not moving to the DGU?

Four large teams will remain in IT Services. These are:

Customer Services
Software Solutions
Infrastructure Services
Programme and Project Delivery Group (PPDG).

Mike Fraser has been appointed as Interim Director of IT Services and takes up this role in early October. Mike will also report to the PVC (Digital) until David White takes up the new role of CDIO, later this year.

IT Services and the DGU will both be supported by the existing administration function within IT, which will be referred to as the Office of the CDIO (OCDIO). This team will report to Stuart Lee in his capacity as Deputy CDIO.

Is the DGU a support function or a control function?

The DGU will be both a support and a control function, working on behalf of the collegiate University. It will have delegated authority from the IDC (Information and Digital Committee) to control and influence how the digital portfolios achieve their outcomes based on agreed standards and principles for the design and delivery of digital services. It will also provide support to the digital portfolios to help them realise the University’s strategic digital ambitions.

It aims to:

Support and enable;
Monitor and evaluate;
Assure; and
Innovate.

How will the Digital Assurance Team in the DGU work with the Assurance Directorate?

The Director of Digital Assurance in the DGU, Ian Teasdale, will report to the Director of the DGU, but he will also have a professional reporting line through to the University’s Director of Assurance. Ian already works closely with colleagues in the Assurance Directorate, such as the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) and the Head of Information Compliance & Data Protection Officer and will continue to do so.