Universities are, inherently, centres of excellence. Brimming with brilliant thinkers, creative and curious colleagues, the ingredients for successful digital transformation are all there. Yet, in many cases, progress has been slow – even when universities are pouring time, money and energy into change. The professional services firm EY’s latest report on digital transformation in higher education, which draws upon comprehensive interviews with university leaders and focus groups with hundreds of staff around the world, found a number of reasons why.
The report also highlights key insights and strategies to help overcome these barriers. What becomes apparent is that a human-centric approach can help tear down barriers to transformation – prioritising people over processes, understanding that emotions impact efficiency, and empowering the individuals that drive the institution.
Fragmented and siloed ways of working
Universities are purpose-driven, collaborative and democratic by nature. But many institutions have fragmented and siloed structures that can pull departments in different directions.
Individual faculties can operate like small fiefdoms with their own visions for excellence. This can be a sticking point when it comes to implementing change across the whole university, EY found. Within this structure, where faculties have a high degree of autonomy, people can become resistant to strategies that require centralisation or coordination across different departments, university staff told EY. What’s more, each faculty can have its own idiosyncratic professional culture, meaning the same engagement strategy may not work across the board.
A crucial first step for many universities can be reassuring staff who are reluctant to commit to a central strategy – digital transformation is only possible if individual faculties are on board with a cohesive university-wide vision.
“University structures that have remained in place for hundreds of years are no longer sustainable,” says Catherine Friday, global education leader at EY. “New approaches are required to adapt to a new world, and this will be uncomfortable for many people. But listening to staff and understanding their perspectives while also showing them how a new approach will benefit them and the university will go some way to alleviating the concerns.”
Long-established and deeply entrenched ways of working
Embarking on digital transformation can mean the overhaul of long-established ways of working. Academic institutions would say they value freedom and free thinking, attracting many talented people. However, this can also come with a degree of scepticism about centrally imposed control and transformation.
Academic institutions – which can have hierarchical cultures, slowing innovation – often undergo fewer regular, fundamental changes than private organisations. “Universities are very unused to change,” says Gerard Culley, director of IT services at University College Cork in Ireland. “[This is] unlike in a commercial organisation, where change happens annually or even quarterly and people just have a muscle memory for change.”
To overcome this barrier, university leaders need to embrace the opinions of their staff across the campus, inspire them to change and bring them on the transformation journey.
Competition from the private sector for the best IT staff
Academic institutions are losing significant numbers of IT staff to the private sector due to the pay gap, focus group participants told EY. Academic pay is low compared with other highly qualified jobs in the UK, for example. The University and College Union (UCU) has warned that university staff have been given low pay awards over the past decade, putting pay 25% behind inflation. In contrast, the private sector saw a 7.2% pay growth in 2022.
“We are losing 35% of IT staff as they can get better pay in the private sector,” a focus group member from the UAE said.
“You can throw money at tech all day long, but you’re going to get nowhere until you invest in the people,” another participant in a UK staff focus group told EY.
Successful digital transformation will also mean transforming and strengthening IT departments. New capabilities will be required, such as data, analytics and AI, alongside people with experience of translating digital software into business benefits.
Upskilling requirements and new technology
University staff are busy and in many cases have crammed working schedules. Some staff told EY that institutions were not doing enough to digitally upskill employees and train them in new systems. On top of this, they felt that the right technology is not always being invested in. “Leadership seems to be jumping on the hype train with no real understanding of the tools,” a respondent from a Japan teaching faculty focus group said.
Others felt they didn’t always know how to use new technologies or understand their relevance. “[Institutions] put out vague values-related strategies with poor comms and no real link to contextualise people’s day-to-day experiences, so staff can understand, engage, support and contribute,” one respondent said. Another complained about the use of buzzwords: “Communication is often restricted to these kinds of terms, which don’t always land with staff on the ground.”
A successful digital transformation depends on strong communication, giving staff the time and support to learn new ways of working and tools, and demonstrating the benefits early.
Uncoordinated approach to innovation
Innovative approaches are not always implemented across the organisation, even after they have been piloted, EY respondents said. This was often due to lack of investment in dissemination, training and support, as well as people simply not being used to scaling new ideas or practices. A lack of systems to help staff to share data can exacerbate the problem.
Without one clear, joined-up approach, hundreds of uncoordinated, small experiments can spring up across universities. One respondent described this as “a thousand flowers blooming” – it’s like creating a garden where some plants self-seed and grow randomly, while other plants are smothered. Instead, EY’s research suggests that universities need to plan a more “formal garden”, understanding what will be “planted” first and where and how to nurture each element to reach its potential.
Staff burnout
In recent years, the pace and amount of change has been unprecedented and it follows the intense period of rapid adaptation during the Covid-19 pandemic. EY found that change fatigue is a real issue for universities.
“We’re now talking about new tools and some of our faculty are saying: ‘Let me just breathe.’ After years of chaos, we need time to turn the temperature down,” a respondent from a staff focus group in Canada said.
This is exacerbated when staff feel they are not consulted about changes. Some respondents felt administrative staff were expected to implement changes without consultation first. For example, a respondent from a staff focus group in Singapore said that “new digital technology and systems are implemented without first consulting those on the ground who will be using them”.
Earlier research by EY and Oxford University’s Saïd Business School found that respondents in high-performing transformations were almost twice as likely to say their organisation provided the emotional support they needed along the way. By prioritising the realities of human experiences over impersonal processes and structures, universities can unleash the potential for transformation.
To find out more about digital transformation in higher education, read EY’s latest report on how universities can keep people at the centre of digital transformation
