Status message
By making agreements together on how we use, store and exchange information, we help the sector move towards an efficient information strategy now and in the future.
Higher Education Sector Architecture (HOSA)
SURF has taken over management and further development of HOSA by 2023
In recent years, we have jointly developed domain architectures for common sector facilities within higher education. To ensure that HOSA also continues to develop, SURF has taken over management of HOSA from 2023. The further development is done in close collaboration with the higher education institutions and the sector partners. In addition, SURF propagates the frameworks of the HOSA and steers its application.
What is the HOSA project?
HOSA stands for Higher Education Sector Architecture. This sector architecture should contain frameworks that help suppliers of the common information and technology facilities develop and deliver these facilities. For this, it is important to identify the requirements that these facilities must meet.
More and more shared facilities
Educational and research institutions currently already use a number of shared facilities. As institutions increasingly cooperate, we expect to see more and more of these shared facilities. Developments from the Acceleration Plan for Education Innovation with ICT, as well as developments from UNL and VH, will accelerate this.
Better facilities with clear coherence through HOSA
If the sector partners in education and research embrace this architecture, current and new initiatives in the area of sector facilities will soon be realised faster, more future-oriented and more future-proof. SURF and sector partners will then be better able to respond to this with products and services. And then students, lecturers and researchers will experience better facilities with clear coherence.
Three domain architectures
Based on the requirements we have mapped out (see also below under Approach), we give concrete form to those requirements in domain architectures. We create a domain architecture for the following three domains:
- Research Data Management, version 1.0 (pdf)
- Education & Flexibility, version 1.0 (pdf)
- Identity & access 1.0 (pdf)
We have chosen these domains because the provisions for those domains are important for strategic cooperation between higher education institutions, SURF and sector partners.
The HOSA welcomes change proposals on the domain architectures. The HOSA Change Process (pdf) tells you how to submit a change proposal, and how we process such a proposal.
The Higher Education Sector Architecture (HOSA) describes ambitions of the sector in the goals structure. This provides insight into the goals and ambitions broadly held in the sector.
Development of target structure
The goal structure was developed on the basis of various policy documents from (sector) partners and institutions. Based on various workshops and articles in the media, it was supplemented. In doing so, we mainly looked for a way to represent them in a common way.
Use of the goal structure in practice
Architects around sector facilities use the goal structure to assess which goals will and will not be achieved when choices are made when designing and setting up new sector facilities. The goal structure acts as a kind of context within which the architect can represent which goals are not given sufficient attention. This is discussed with the various stakeholders. As a result, decision-making around sector facilities becomes more transparent and stakeholders know when certain objectives will not be realised, or will be realised later, with a specific sector facility.
The Higher Education Sector Architecture (HOSA) uses a base plate to outline how sector facilities of the future are connected. The plate is applied and further concretised in the domain architectures. The base plate uses the concept of business platforms, online marketplaces that facilitate collaboration and interaction.
The base plate can be seen as the foundation of HOSA's application architecture. By using the same base plate as a foundation, HOSA provides overview and a common starting point for discussions among its many stakeholders. In addition, this base plate provides the foundation for representing various initiatives in a coherent manner.
Concept of business platforms
Developments in education and research increasingly demand exchange between different parties, such as students, teachers, researchers, companies, governments and citizens. This involves exchange of, for example, data and facilities. To draw up the application architecture for the sector facilities, the HOSA therefore uses the concept of business platforms to flesh out the base plate. The HOSA uses this concept because it provides insight into so-called online marketplaces. We see these emerging in various places due to increasing cooperation in the sector. They facilitate interaction and cooperation, bring supply and demand together and steer towards shared values and norms.