Digital investment could ‘relieve need for university job cuts’

The UK government has been urged to create a “digital transformation fund” to support universities to update legacy IT systems which may be costing them millions of pounds extra a year.

A new report from the thinktank the Social Market Foundation has warned that higher education digital systems are “patchy and uneven”, with about a third of all universities still reliant on “notoriously expensive” and outdated digital servers for their core operations.

The report, Byte the Budget?, estimates that digital transformation could save UK universities £386 million a year through productivity gains to their core activities in research and teaching, money that could help relieve the need to enact wide-ranging job cuts and course closures.

However, it warned that “those that would likely benefit most from digital transformation are the exact institutions least likely to be able to afford it” and which therefore need support with the upfront costs.

The paper notes that the government has announced £3.25 billion of funding for a transformation fund to support public services to embrace digital transformation and AI, and called for this to be extended to universities.

Funding could be given in the form of a grant or loan, and the fund should prioritise projects that deliver “measurable” efficiencies, such as cloud migration, automation of administrative systems and the integration of siloed data infrastructure, it says.

“Importantly, it should also support innovation in teaching and learning, ensuring that students receive a modern and relevant learning experience and that universities can maintain competitiveness in the global market,” according to the report.

“Continuing to prop up fragmented legacy infrastructure takes resources away from areas that offer higher return value, such as teaching, research and student services. The opportunity cost presented if institutions continued their current trajectory of patchy digital evolution is significant – universities will be continuing to spend significant resources just to stand still.”

The report argues that digital transformation could be considered over job losses and course closures to deliver savings and said it “must” form a key part of the sector’s response to its current financial crisis, “as existing research suggests that it can significantly reduce operational costs while maintaining or even improving experience and outcomes”.

Alongside financial constraints, the report argues that “institutional inertia” is “hindering” progress, with “cultural barriers” also a contributing factor.

Academic staff are said to have shown a lack of trust in digital products, expressed concerns about their security, and there has been “a general lack of willingness from faculty to embrace technology”.

Dani Payne, head of education and social mobility at the Social Market Foundation, told Times Higher Education that many universities see the financial case for digital transformation, “but struggle to secure the upfront capital to invest in new technologies and systems”.

“The government has already set aside money for digital transformation in the public sector, and there’s good reason to set some aside for universities – after all, the UK workforce will need 11 million extra graduates by 2035, by the government’s own estimates.

“A HE transformation fund, even if only on a loan basis, will be crucial support for universities in making the necessary upfront investments, making innovation in teaching and learning, ensuring that students receive a modern and relevant learning experience and that universities can maintain competitiveness in the global market.”

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com