The UK’s higher education industry is facing the perfect storm: funding pressures, socioeconomic uncertainty and a pressing need to modernize and digitally transform. And it’s not just universities feeling the pressure, on the student side of the equation, the high cost of living is also problematic. For the first time ever, a majority of UK higher education students used part-time jobs to fund themselves through their degrees. Data from the Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI) shows nearly a third of universities have had to open food banks. Our research shows that seven in ten students have considered dropping out of university in light of cost-of-living surges.
The challenges are complex. And while we have some of the finest academic institutions, the stark reality is that the technology that a large majority of higher education institutions in the UK rely upon is archaic. Take student administration systems for example: the majority of universities continue to manage student services through on-premise systems or through solutions hosted on external servers – positioned by vendors as cloud technology – while simply replicating many of the problems of the on-premise solutions they replaced.
With many universities in the UK running on aging systems no longer fit for purpose, productivity gains are hard to find. Silos of information bring about huge inefficiencies. For cybercriminals, universities are seen as attractive targets that might not have the internal resources to defend themselves against cyberattacks, bringing unacceptable financial and reputational risk.
And despite UCAS predicting a rise in student numbers in its ‘Journey to a Million’ report, UK universities are expected to lose £5bn each year due to persistent inflation. Tuition fees for domestic students in England have been capped at £9,250 since 2017, giving universities limited options to offset the impact of rising prices.
With financial constraints set to only increase over the next four years, universities have no room for error when it comes to spending decisions. With the pace of losses only accelerating, something has to give and universities cannot afford for that to be the quality of education, support services or the student experience.
The need to find new ways of working and modernize systems has never been more evident and technology is the answer to many of the ills the sector faces:
- Modern technology systems are key to attracting students, who have grown up on Netflix and Apple Pay, but also retain them, by offering a great digital experience;
- Technology can help spot struggling students at risk of dropping out. Analyzing the right timely data can be transformative in helping universities identify and intervene when students are struggling academically, financially and emotionally, and ultimately helping them stay the course;
- More effective flows of data, which an integrated Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) enterprise resource planning solution enables, also help institutions drive intelligent digital services and improved decisions on investment;
- A secure SaaS platform should include multi-tiered security measures to predict, prevent and respond to cyber risks;
- Modern technology can help with staff retention, removing the manual burden of administrative tasks and allowing staff to focus on what matters.
If tuition fees remain fixed, the higher education sector must prioritise long-term forecasting, especially given the expected uptick in student demand – it is crucial for universities to have mechanisms in place to retain enrolments and spot at risk students.
The University of Buckingham have recently chosen to retire their legacy systems and are now implementing TechnologyOne’s OneEducation, which includes Financials, HR and Payroll and Student Management. While they came out to market looking for a finance system, when they saw the potential to unlock the power of their data and make the employee and the student experience better they broadened the scope of their digital transformation.
A single integrated SaaS Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) removes silos between departments allowing data to be automated, consolidated and transformed into tangible insights allowing universities to identify and intervene when students are struggling in real-time.
The solution provides universities access to dashboard views of their consolidated student data, enabling them to view a student’s journey from offer to acceptance and enrolment and, in time, make effective changes that can improve their university experience.
If an applicant’s enrolment process stalls, Student Management will flag it and identify what stage of the enrolment process they struggled to complete, allowing the university to reach out to that potential future student, but also review the process itself for future recruits.
The solution’s dashboards can also flag students who are dropping in engagement with their coursework by highlighting indicators of disengagement such as missing classes or failing to turn in assignments, empowering administrators to make early interventions that could keep a student enrolled.
As a true SaaS provider, TechnologyOne regularly deploys platform-wide security enhancements to ensure universities are provided with optimal protection.
OneEducation’s financial modeling capability is also a critical tool for universities seeking to ensure their long-term financial sustainability. By creating detailed representations of a university’s financial situation using various assumptions and scenarios, universities can simulate different financial conditions and predict how changes in key variables might impact their financial health.
For instance, universities can model scenarios involving changes in government funding, international student enrolment numbers, tuition fees and other revenue streams. By examining these scenarios, universities can assess potential financial outcomes and plan accordingly.
With proposed migration caps expected to put a major dent in universities’ bottom line, investment into digital transformation may not appear to be the most natural next step. But given the opportunities to recoup costs through greater institutional efficiencies and preventing student attrition, embracing innovative technology is no longer a nice to have but a necessity.
