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Leap - UNSW Technology Strategy

Leap is UNSW’s Technology Strategy. It's our chance to show what the technology community at UNSW can do when it works as one technology landscape, building the conditions that make Progress for All possible.

 

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Leap - UNSW Technology Strategy

How does Leap relate to Progress for All?

Progress for All sets UNSW’s institutional ambition. Leap is how technology shows up to enable that ambition. Leap is not separate from Progress for All; it is one of the core engines that powers it.

While Pillar 5 of the Progress for All Strategy is the most strongly-focused on technology, all 9 pillars have a deep demand on technology. Instead of treating the technology response as a list of projects, Leap looks across the ambition of Progress for All and focuses on creating the technology conditions UNSW needs to power Progress.

Leap gives us the commitments, action areas, and shared ways of working that will help us build a more connected, responsive, and future-ready technology landscape.

What are the Leap Commitments?

These are the five big promises we invite the entire UNSW technology landscape is make over the next ten years of Progress for All: bold, people-first outcomes that set the tone for how we’ll work, decide, and deliver technology
  1. We will put people and experience first – We design with our students, academics, and professional staff at the centre. Simple, unified, intuitive experiences become the norm.
  2. We will deliver value faster – We move away from long, monolithic projects and create a steady, visible flow of improvements that turn intent into impact.
  3. We will be connected, accountable, and aligned – We operate as one technology ecosystem with shared standards, clarity on ownership, and decisions that support UNSW as a whole.
  4. We will lead in AI and emerging technologies – We harness innovation responsibly to power learning, research, discovery, and societal impact.
  5. We will grow a culture of digital leadership – We build confidence, capability, and shared responsibility so everyone at UNSW is empowered to contribute to progress.

What are the Leap Action Areas?

The Action Areas are where the real work happens for the next three years. They are cross-university areas of focus that require orchestration across teams, functions, and capabilities. Each Action Area brings together programs, projects, initiatives, and new ways of working to deliver on the Leap commitments. They are not everything we will do, but they are the areas we are choosing to prioritise now to build momentum and capability.

Here are the five Action Areas:
Shaping Tomorrow’s Digital Experience

Simplifying and modernising the UNSW digital environment so experiences feel clearer, more seamless, and more connected.

Creating Value with Discipline

Ensuring every technology investment delivers measurable benefit, reduces duplication, and strengthens our shared foundations.

Adopting Modern Ways of Working

Moving to cross-functional, outcome-focused delivery with clearer ownership, faster cycles, and better alignment.

Building Digital Acumen

Growing digital confidence and leadership across UNSW so everyone can use, shape, and influence technology responsibly.

Enabling Safe Innovation

Creating the conditions for experimentation, AI use, and emerging tech exploration, safely, ethically, and with clear enablement.

These are the priority areas for 2026–2028, chosen because they unlock the shifts we must make early to set the technology conditions for Progress for All.

  • No. Leap is for the entire technology landscape:  faculties, divisions, research, teaching, clinical environments, and UNSW IT. This is the beginning of forming a true Technology Collective across the university. UNSW IT plays a critical role, but Leap is designed for everyone who builds, uses, influences, or depends on technology.

  • Because demand on technology has fundamentally shifted. Progress for All requires:

    •  Faster connection-making across the university
    •  Better end-to-end experiences
    • Stronger foundations and shared platforms
    • Greater discipline in decision-making, investment, clarity, and trust
    • The ability to innovate safely, ethically, and at pace

    Leap brings coherence to a highly fragmented environment and helps us act like a single technology landscape.

  • Leap will be implemented by aligning how we plan, prioritise, and work together, not by standing up one big program.

    In practice, this means:

    • Leap provides a shared direction and operating rhythm for technology across UNSW.
    • Existing projects, portfolios, and teams continue to deliver work but are increasingly planned and prioritised through the Leap lens.
    • Action Areas provide the mechanism to connect and align effort, not to manage delivery.

    How this will show up over time:

    • A quarterly planning and reflection cadence will align priorities, surface dependencies, and adjust focus.
    •  A living Leap Roadmap will show where technology effort and investment are concentrated across UNSW.
    • OKRs will be used to signal progress toward outcomes, not to micromanage activity.
    • Early focus will be on reducing friction, duplication, and misalignment, while building momentum through visible proof points.

    What Leap implementation is not:

    • It is not a single, centralised program
    • It is not a replacement for existing governance or delivery structures.
    • It is not a one-off change initiative.

    Why this approach:
    Leap is about building durable technology conditions — coherence, speed, trust, and capability — that endure beyond individual projects and funding cycles.

  • UNSW IT becomes:

    •  A convener and orchestrator of the technology ecosystem
    •  A strategic partner to faculties and divisions
    • A clearer, more disciplined owner of key digital foundations
    •  A leader in safe, ethical, and sustainable technology use

    Leap helps UNSW IT shift from being seen as mostly transactional to becoming a system-level enabler of Progress for All.

  • Leap is a shift from fragmented, project-by-project delivery towards coordinated, strategic, and transparent collaboration. It will help us:

    • Prioritise based on shared outcomes
    • Reduce rework and duplication
    • Build reusable platforms and capabilities
    • Make better decisions faster
    • Align investment with impact

    It’s not just a strategy, it’s a more integrated way of managing technology.

  • Keep it simple:

    • Leap is UNSW’s Technology Strategy.
    • It exists to help us deliver Progress for All.
    •  It’s about working better together, not doing more.
    • The commitments guide how we show up.
    • The action areas guide what we focus on.
    • Your team’s work will connect to Leap, and we’ll help you map that clearly.

    Please share the link to this web page so they can read about Leap, its commitments and Action Areas.

    Leap is being introduced progressivel and we will support leaders with clear storylies, guides and practical tools. The goal is not perfect understanding on day one; it's building shared commitment and clarity over time.