Digital Transformation in Higher Education
Believe the hype and don’t believe the hype….
According to the World Economic Forum, a Fourth Industrial Revolution is now building momentum, characterised by a fusion of technologies that blur the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres. How should higher education leaders prepare their institutions for the changes ahead? Who is leading this change and how are the impacts being felt?
In order to gain greater insights into the changing higher education landscape and the digital changes that are taking place right now, we interviewed and surveyed 26 university leaders from the USA, UK, Canada and Australia; 100 students and recent graduates of universities in 11 countries in Europe, North America, Africa, Asia and Australia; and, 42 founders and leaders of education start-ups in Australia, the USA, UK, Asia and Israel.
The university leaders, edtech entrepreneurs and students interviewed for this study believe transformation in higher education is essential. They are both optimistic and honest about the challenges ahead. Vice chancellors and presidents, anticipating a future with reduced public financial support, understand that it is no longer an option to keep doing things the old way.
Innovation is now prerequisite for survival
There is no doubt that higher education transformation is already underway, with every university leader indicating they are at least part way through their digital journey. However, university leaders, edtech founders and students have divergent views when it comes top priorities for change, and how imminent disruption of the traditional university model will be.
Expect disruption within the next decade
Whether they were university leaders, students or edtech founders, at least 50% of respondents expect the traditional university model to be disrupted by 2025. Students and edtech entrepreneurs expect the timeframe to be even shorter, with approximately one in four expecting disruption within the next two to three years. While universities expect disruption to take longer, nine out of 10 university leaders nonetheless expect the university model to have been disrupted by 2030.
New models have arrived, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves
It is clear that new business models have arrived in higher education and continue to evolve into viable solutions — and become increasingly recognised by employers and the market in general. However, university leaders are cautious in terms of changes to the current university model with three-quarters planning to partly digitise their current operations, and at the same time are contemplating the creation of new digital models.
Overall, universities see digital transformation as a way to enhance their current model, rather than change it.
While almost all university leaders expect higher education to be disrupted in the next ten to fifteen years, very few are planning to fundamentally create a new digital model for their university, indicating a high level of confidence about the place of the traditional university model in a disrupted higher education landscape.
Founders challenge traditional models
Perhaps not surprisingly, edtech founders were more likely to say as a matter of fact that the university model will not service the future needs of educating the world and that it needs to fundamentally change or risk being made redundant. Over two-thirds of edtech founders believe the traditional university model will be disrupted by 2025.
“It’s not a matter of how to use new technologies within the current educational structure, it’s a question of how the digital revolution is requiring a change in the structure and educational model.”
Edtech founder, USA
The student voice. Loud and clear.
One hundred university students and recent graduates from 11 countries around the world contributed their thoughts and experiences to this study. Clearly, ‘digital matters’ to students and they want universities to improve the use of technologies right through their student experience.
Options beyond the lecture model
Students are interested in alternative ways of learning as part of their university experience, although the current cohort are less interested in undertaking blended or fully online programmes. University leaders generally have not yet emphasised alternative instructional models within their transformation initiatives.
Get the basics right. Skip the bells and whistles.
Students placed less emphasis on the use of emerging technologies such as gaming and simulation, robotics or immersive technology than both university leaders and edtech founders. While other data indicates that students are open to new ways of learning, emerging tech is less important than the integration of technologies throughout their whole experience, both in and out of the classroom.
“Create a more efficient and interactive student portal”
Students, founders and university leaders all agree on the importance of focusing on technology innovation that leads to improvements in the student experience. Digitising content, automating administrative processes and integrated systems might be considered ‘digital hygiene’ factors these days, however there seems to still be plenty of opportunity for transformation in this space, and university leaders are attuned to this need.
“This is edtech’s moment… not with simply looking at technology as processes, but technology which leads to transformative experiences”.
Help me transition to work
Students place a much higher priority on technologies to support internships and pathways to employment than universities. Edtech founders appear quite attuned to this demand — perhaps explaining the momentum that ‘learning to work’ models have amassed over the past decade.
“Universities need to embrace the college to work transition and that students now see jobs as a critical value proposition for higher ed. As such, universities need to consider how technology can close the gap between teaching, learning, and assessment as it relates to workforce preparation”.
Edtech startup, USA
AI scored most impactful emerging technology
Survey respondents considered Artificial Intelligence the most significant of a range of emerging technologies. This was followed by the Internet of Things and virtual/augmented reality — perhaps reflecting an interest in connecting the physical and digital worlds as applied to higher learning. Respondents considered chatbots, robotics, and blockchain as being relatively less important, which also reflects the novelty of these technologies as applied to higher education at this point in time.
Download the full report
Download the full report containing more information and deeper insights into the purpose and priorities, leadership and momentum of digital transformation in higher education, including a comparison of digital priorities between students, edtech founders and university leaders mapped to the next generation learning lifecycle.
