Stepping up to the plate
A new way for universities and colleges to work with startups
The UK’s system of colleges and universities is one of the strongest in the world, with growing demand at home and a stellar reputation abroad. But with a competitive international landscape and rising costs of attending university, the sector can’t afford to miss a trick if it is to stay ahead of the game.
At last week’s event hosted by Universities UK and headlined by Universities Minister Chris Skidmore MP, Emerge Education and our close partners at Jisc launched the new Step Up initiative to help universities and colleges make the most of pioneering edtech startups.
Right time, right place
The UK is one of the top global destinations for edtech startups. Together with Jisc, we have helped dozens of founders take their business forward. Ask any one of them and they will agree: universities and colleges can be incredibly frustrating to work with. Although universities and startups share many goals, like improving the student experience, the sector has been slow to adopt new products. Why is that? We convened senior leaders from universities and colleges across the country in an advisory group, chaired by Mary Curnock Cook OBE and supported by Jisc, to understand the barriers — and come up with a practical solution.
It comes down to a fundamental mismatch in risk tolerance. Startups are inherently risky. By contrast, publicly funded universities have a duty to minimize risk. At first glance, the idea of working with a startup goes against this principle, so startups come up against barriers at every stage of the process — from discovery (where do you find the right product?) to due diligence (is it credible?) to piloting (will it ruin our university’s systems?).
But when leaders understand how a product can help them achieve a strategic goal — say, widening participation — the balance of risk vs reward shifts in the startup’s favour. As one senior leader described a successful partnership with a startup, ‘If I had to summarize what made it work, it would be “right time, right place.”’ We want to highlight the rewards and reduce the risks — so more founders can find themselves in the right place at the right time.
The Step Up scheme
How much does it matter whether universities and colleges work with edtech startups in the first place? The panel at the opening session of last week’s event was unanimous: technology is here to stay and both universities and colleges risk being left behind if they don’t make the most of the innovations edtech offers.
Looking back on the dozens of visits to universities across the country he has made since his appointment as Minister for Universities, Chris Skidmore pointed out the many ways in which vulnerable students can fall through the cracks — and how technology can help them, sometimes in unexpected ways. As an example, he pointed to the use of digital resources (like Emerge portfolio company Bibliotech) to improve accessibility for students with disabilities.
As Jisc CEO Paul Feldman said, there is much to be excited about in the new generation of technology products that go beyond low-hanging fruit to tackle real challenges around mental health, research productivity, and more. And the higher education sector can boast plenty of examples of good use of technology — but as Minister Skidmore said, there need to be better ways to make these examples mainstream. And according to Portsmouth University Vice-Chancellor Graham Galbraith,
the higher education sector is facing its Kodak moment, one it will look back on in the future as the time it went through a successful transformation — or missed the boat.
Helping navigate this transition is the goal of the Step Up scheme launched at the event. Developed by Jisc and Emerge Education in collaboration with our advisory group of senior HE and FE leaders, this is a process to assess emerging startups against key sector requirements. The companies that can be trusted to deliver technological innovations and sustain a high level of service are awarded the ‘assessed by Jisc’ badge.
An accompanying report, which can be shared with potential customers, highlights the product’s strengths and areas for improvement so universities and colleges can make informed decisions in piloting and procurement. Based on early feedback, we expect this to reduce the uncertainty of choosing new products, shorten sales cycles for edtech startups and help founders understand sector requirements. Participating startups will receive support to better meet those requirements.
What’s next?
Over the next few months, we will be opening up access to the Step Up scheme to more startups in the UK and abroad. To find out more, you can:
- See the first nine reports from the pilot stage of the scheme, developed in consultation with senior leaders, procurement, legal, and IT teams at over a dozen universities.
- Read our new guide for senior leaders in HE and FE, published by Jisc, which explains the benefits of working with startups and helps them better understand and mitigate some of the risks involved in dealing with emerging companies.
- Read Jisc’s press release about the launch of the scheme and register your interest in taking part.
- Read coverage of the event on Wonkhe.
The process we went through — convening a cross-sector group of senior leaders to deeply understand barriers to edtech adoption and develop a practical programme of change to address them — is a model we believe in.
There are a lot of great thought leadership pieces out in the world, but those who believe in the promise of education technology must take action to enable it, too.
From June, we are bringing together new groups in a range of sectors to tackle pressing issues that limit the impact of edtech in schools, in preparing students for the changing world of work, transforming the practice of assessment, and more. Keep an eye out as we dive deep and report back on what we learn — and what we plan to do about it. And if you want to get involved and join our coalition for change, get in touch.
