Digital Risk as Leadership Risk: How can UK universities build institutional resilience?

10 December 2026, 3:00pm - 4:00pm (GMT)

In partnership with

Huron

Overview

UK universities face a converging set of digital risks that are arriving faster than most governance structures can absorb. AI adoption pressures, cybersecurity exposure, IT infrastructure fragility, and new regulatory obligations including NIS2 and the EU AI Act are creating compliance and risk pressures on institutions large and small.

Huron believes that the institutions best positioned to weather this period are not those with the most sophisticated technology, but those with the clearest leadership ownership of digital risk, accountability structures, and cultural foundations to execute.

Drawing on direct advisory work with UK and European institutions, Huron's presenters offer a practical framework for how vice chancellors and senior leaders in a range of executive roles - not just CISOs and CIOs - can help ensure their institution's exposure is assessed, prioritise their response, and use AI as a tool for building resilience rather than a source of additional risk.

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Speakers

Mark Cianca

Principal

Huron

Deborah Green

CEO

UCISA

Deborah is CEO of UCISA, the professional body for leaders of digital transformation and services in HE and FE institutions in the UK. Deborah’s leadership, mentoring, lobbying and representation skills have driven UCISA’s ambitious strategy, enabling UCISA to harness the power of its members’ collective voice and to represent the sector with authority and authenticity. Using this powerful mandate, UCISA is able to shape policy and regulation at the highest levels.

Deborah regularly chairs sessions and speaks at both national and international conferences and events and was appointed as a Commissioner to the House of Lords Inquiry into Blended Learning in 2023.

Prior to joining UCISA, Deborah was Director of Student Recruitment at the University of Hull and Director of Marketing and Communications at Leeds Beckett University, CEO of Marketing Leeds and both practised and lectured law during her time as a Solicitor. She has over 35 years of board level experience and is currently a director of Ucisa Services ltd, HEFESTIS ltd and New Collaborative Learning Trust.

Deborah has a law degree from the University of Warwick, was awarded an honorary doctorate (LLD) from the Russian Judicial Academy, was recognised as Yorkshire Lawyer of the Year in 2007, is a Fellow of the Academy of Higher Education and has recently been recognised as a Doctor of Letters (DLitt) by the University Of West London.