In early 2025, Kortext hosted three sector-wide events across the country with a range of experts considering how cutting-edge technology can enable universities to address the sector’s most pressing strategic challenges.

In alignment with this theme, I had the opportunity to catch up with three colleagues from institutions who are using the StREAM by Kortext student engagement analytics platform to support student success initiatives in their institutions, to explore more about these strategic challenges.

Read on for some insights from:

• Rob Blagden, Director of Digital and Library Services, Cardiff Metropolitan University
• Professor Julie Brunton, Pro Vice Chancellor Education and Student Experience, University of Bedfordshire
• Professor Mark Simpson, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Teesside University

Changing the narrative 

All colleagues expressed a sense of relief from the change in government last year. The election brought a welcome end to the culture wars, although negative feelings from young people towards HE is likely to be part of the Conservative Government legacy for some time to come. 

The shift in rhetoric from the new Labour government in respect of the UK being open for business for international students was particularly welcome. Mark Simpson describes the retention of the Graduate Route as ‘hugely important’, given the cultural and educational value to the sector from welcoming international students, although evidence shows (see, for example this Times Higher Education article and the slump in student visas) that the international market remains volatile and is likely to be slow to recover. 

While Labour have indicated their broad areas of focus for HE, Julie Brunton believes that more clarity is required – particularly around devolution in areas like Bedfordshire where no devolution agreement currently exists. Clarity is also required given the financial sustainability issues that are preoccupying many providers at this time. 

The robot revolution is coming …  or is it? 

Simpson describes as ‘almost laughable’ the kneejerk reaction from the sector to the arrival of ChatGPT within higher education through attempts to ban it entirely and through the mistaken belief that plagiarism detection tools would easily identify where AI had been used. Rather, he is of the opinion that the sector needs to embrace emerging and fast-paced technologies like AI, and help students and staff navigate the resulting opportunities and challenges in a more constructive manner. In this regard, colleagues at the University of Bedfordshire have been working hard to embed the ability for students to use AI within teaching, learning and assessment activity across their provision given it is increasingly viewed as a core graduate competence. 

There are deep ethical questions here around the use of data. A student journey project at Teesside University that tracked levels of student anxiety found, perhaps not surprisingly, that anxiety increased prior to assessment periods. The findings led Simpson to question what use the university were making of this insight to mitigate the anxiety. Were operational processes altered? Were communications and services around managing stress and preparing for assessment ramped up? The answer is, probably not… yet! When this insight is used more effectively, he believes much more serious conversations on the ethical use of wellbeing data will be required. 

Moreover, now that universities are no longer the sole custodians of knowledge, Simpson argues that the role of human interaction at all levels and stages of university life will become increasingly seen as the value of higher education. Rob Blagden would go much further. In his view, we are in the midst of one of those generational shifts that will fundamentally alter the world as we know it. Artificial Super Intelligence will trigger a range of existential questions that fundamentally threaten the heart of what it will mean to be an academic. He looks ahead to 2040 when AI will do our research for us, validate it and apply the learning from it to itself – at a speed we cannot even contemplate. Who knows, AI agents may even be writing your TEF provider statement by 2035! 

Blagden also recognises the importance of meaningful human interaction within education. He considers that in a future AI-powered world which reduces human workload, education could become a hobby which creates opportunities for fulfilment and human connection, ensuring a thriving future for the HE sector remains. 

Opportunities and threats arising from the growth in AI  

There are some short-term growth areas for universities in this sphere. For example, computer science experts can support the integration of AI within public services. Ongoing discussion and debate on the use of AI remains imperative considering how AI has threatened the very validity of knowledge. Simpson expects that blockchain approaches will be needed to help ‘verify’ mitigating circumstances applications for example and prove the veracity of documentary evidence submitted by students. Equally, AI can generate photographic images from scratch, thus rendering imperative a paradigm shift in the design and delivery of creative arts programmes. 

The implications of these AI-related developments for HE are, in Blagden’s eyes, stark and he is both ‘excited, but a bit scared by it!’ While he believes HE will be last to the AI party – and to the rise of the robots – he thinks that ultimately the use of AI will shift beyond automation to the eradication of jobs as we know them today.  

Technology in universities will continue to evolve 

The ability to harness data across the sector and within institutions to support operational matters is a logical corollary to the Office for Students focus on the use of data in terms of student outcomes in England or international student destinations and employability. For Simpson, these developments are not without concern, primarily around the risks to individual students who act in ways that differ from predictions built on norms identified within large data sets. 

Extrapolate this trend across the next decade and Blagden is convinced that universities use of large corporate systems will adapt. On the one hand, he considers that the days of large corporate software systems are numbered and envisions a future where electronic agents are used to undertake specific tasks e.g. processing of degree algorithms on a ‘pay per use’ basis. But on the other, he believes that universities will continue to consolidate systems where they can, with fewer systems delivering more value – even if tasks are assigned to pay per use agents.

Having a clear and visionary data strategy is essential to the ongoing development of digital learning, teaching and assessment, and to the use of technologies that support the myriad other functions that take place within universities. Advanced data management capabilities such as those offered by Kortext Fusion provide a single strategic foundation connecting the entire Kortext product range to accelerate digital transformation within universities, supporting interoperability between systems and integrated data-flows, and enabling enhanced data-informed decision-making. 

Blagden further believes that HE lacks software solutions on a pricing model that reflects the way app development and purchase has gone. He cites new players in the financial management arena, such as Xero and QuickBooks, and wonders at what point these will become commonplace in universities, funded on a £x per user per month basis, allowing universities to scale up and scale back as required. This move away from fixed costs to a variable model will provide increased functionality and more agility even though this is harder to budget for. 

New entrants into the HE software market will further disrupt current models, threatening providers with no clear technology roadmap and lots of legacy software systems. While customisation and the ability to tailor software to the specific needs of the institution is the current fashion, Blagden’s expectation is that these new providers will offer non-customisable solutions at prices that undercut the market significantly enough that universities will adapt their use of data to fit the software. In his view, a standard approach to the collection, storage and use of data is where sector-wide efficiencies will be found.  

Bringing it all together 

Whether you are excited by the AI-fuelled future that Blagden envisages, or more cautious in what you foresee coming over the horizon, the sense that 2025 will be a busy and eventful year within UK HE is tangible. We may well see more universities closing their doors while others seek to reinvent and redefine themselves around technology and digital transformation agendas.

Whatever happens, we at Kortext are ready to partner with you on your data and digital transformation journey and we continue the conversation in our next blog ‘Preparing for the digital evolution’.

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