DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION AND UNIVERSITIES

Purpose- This study aims to examine how digitalization has affected and changed higher education. It focuses on the current situation of universities and their current processes and what they need to do to become digital. It aims to present a roadmap for universities to integrate and organize these important changes into their strategies by examining the digital transformation that affects the vision of universities. Methodology- The study employs a literature review using secondary data analysis. Findings- The analysis reveals that the role of universities in many aspects such as society and economy has changed and is expected to change disruptively over the next decade. Universities need to make a differentiation through emerging business models in such a competitive higher education sector. Higher education institutions have to adapt to technological changes for sustainabilty. The pandemic dramatically accelerated the pace of technological adoption worldwide. The drivers of digital transformation in universiteis can be summarized as the increase compteteiveness, user experience and agility while reduction in operating expenses. Conclusion- It may be concluded that a university should be part of present technological trends and include digitalization in their strategies to be competitive in the future. Universities need to focus mainly on exploring more innovative measures to create technology development centres through research to deal with skills shortages. Universities should support those academics who lead the improvement of digital skills and innovative teaching methods, promote digital literacy in the academia and encourage the use of learning platforms. It is important to set a clear policy to adopt digital age in higher education. Universities will be competing globally for students, academic staff and funding. Adoption and implementation of new technologies in universities are inevitable.

___

  • Bygstad, B., Øvrelid, E., Ludvigsen, S., & Dæhlen, M. (2022). From dual digitalization to digital learning space: Exploring the digital transformation of higher education. Computers & Education, 182, 104463.
  • Doroshenko, T. N., Kalpinskaya, O. E., & Makarova, E. A. (2021, February). Digital university models in the process of modern transformation of higher education. In Proceedings of International Scientific and Practical Conference, Russia 2020–a new reality: economy and society (ISPCR 2020).
  • Fűzi, B., Géring, Z., & Szendrei-Pál, E. (2022). Changing expectations related to digitalisation and socialisation in higher education. Horizon scanning of pre-and post-COVID-19 discourses. Educational Review, 1-33.
  • Giesenbauer, B., & Müller-Christ, G. (2020). University 4.0: Promoting the transformation of higher education institutions toward sustainable development. Sustainability, 12(8), 3371.
  • Gorbunova, N. V., Timirgaleeva, R. R., & Khrulyova, A. A. (2021). Integrated model formation for the digital university development. In SHS Web of Conferences (Vol. 113, p. 00024). EDP Sciences.
  • Grajek, S. (2020). How Colleges and Universities Are Driving to Digital Transformation Today. https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/1/howcolleges-and-universities-are-driving-to-digital-transformation-today
  • Mohamed Hashim, M. A., Tlemsani, I., & Matthews, R. (2021). Higher education strategy in digital transformation. Education and Information Technologies, 1-25.
  • Mosteanu, N. R. (2020). Digital university campus–change the education system approach to meet the 21st century needs. European Journal of Human Resource Management Studies, 4(4).
  • Nowakowski, S. (2017). The Digital Turn in Higher Education-International Perspectives on Learning and Teaching in a Changing World.
  • Pacholak, A. (2020). Digital university from student perspective: a step forward. European Journal of Higher Education IT, 8(2),1-10.
  • Rof, A., Bikfalvi, A., & Marques, P. (2022). Pandemic-accelerated digital transformation of a born digital higher education ınstitution. Educational Technology & Society, 25(1), 124-141.
  • Seres, L., Pavlicevic, V., & Tumbas, P. (2018, March). Digital transformation of higher education: Competing on analytics. In Proceedings of INTED2018 Conference 5th-7th March (pp. 9491-9497).
  • Telukdarie, A., & Munsamy, M. (2019, December). Digitization of Higher Education Institutions. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management (IEEM) (pp. 716-721). IEEE.
  • Wang, X., Wang, Z., Wang, Q., Chen, W., & Pi, Z. (2021). Supporting digitally enhanced learning through measurement in higher education: Development and validation of a university students' digital competence scale. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 37(4), 1063-1076.
  • Witt, T., Klumpp, M., & Beyer, B. (2021). Digital University Teaching and Learning in Management—The Gini from the COVID-19 Bottle and Its Empirical Representations in Germany. Education Sciences, 11(11), 728.