Overview
The Office of Intercollegiate Services is a limited company owned by the Colleges associated with the University of Cambridge and some of the Houses of the Cambridge Theological Federation. It is responsible primarily for providing support to those Colleges and Houses. It also services a number of committees that facilitate the operation of business both between the Colleges and with the University of Cambridge.
The Colleges and Houses are independent and self-governing academic institutions, but at times need to work together to further their own missions and those of the Collegiate University. The Office of Intercollegiate Services provides mechanisms to assist Colleges and Houses in acting collectively on issues where it is sensible and practical for them to do so. This includes sharing good practice and other information to improve the services for its members (and especially its students), commissioning expert advice on topics of mutual interest and drawing attention to changes to legal and regulatory compliance.
This website hosts a range of resources and other information for the Colleges. Much of it is limited to persons with an @cam.ac.uk email address – this restricted information relates to advice and guidance very specific to members of the Colleges and Houses.
Services Offered
The staff of the Office of Intercollegiate Services are responsible for:
- servicing a range of intercollegiate committees, and joint committees between the Colleges and Houses and the University of Cambridge;
- ensuring proper communications between those committees and the individual Colleges and Houses, as appropriate;
- managing a number of intercollegiate mechanisms relating to financial and membership agreements between the Colleges;
- supporting a number of intercollegiate and College-specific IT packages, through an entity known as CASC;
- collecting benchmarking information, where Colleges and Houses choose to do so;
- providing awareness-raising guidance to Colleges and Houses about legislation changes and external regulatory compliance, particularly in the areas of information management (freedom of information and personal data protection), and freedom of speech, counter-terrorism, employment and charity law;
- acting as the statutory Data Protection Officer for the 31 Colleges in the University of Cambridge;
- acting as an agent where the Colleges and Houses form consortia to manage business of joint or mutual interest.
External registration
The Office of Intercollegiate Services Ltd is a company registered in England, No. 06960729. Its registered office is 12B Kings Parade, Cambridge CB2 1SJ.
Trading names for the Office of Intercollegiate Services Ltd. include: “The Office of Intercollegiate Services”, “Intercollegiate Services”, “OIS”, “The Colleges’ Administration Software Consortium” and “CASC”.
OIS is also registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office. Its reference number is ZB567343. It is not a public authority for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, but is registered as a data controller for the purposes of the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR, and also acts as a data processor for the Colleges and Houses, and in some circumstances, for the University of Cambridge.
