Digital Transformation in Higher Education Institutions: Between Myth and Reality

Abstract

Nowadays, there are several technological trends in the world which promote changes of focus in organizations. This fact, coupled with the globalisation of information and economies, leads to a transformation aimed at achieving greater organizational efficiency and leveraging available digital resources in order to shift organizational cultures towards incorporating and taking advantage of digital instruments and tools. Digital transformation is approached as a turning point that leverages new paradigms emerging in the digital world. It has led experts to rethink how an institution can remain competitive and visible while undergoing social transformation, maintaining its validity and staying sustainable over time. This process is important in technological development, which produces constant changes in order to attend to the needs of the social environment where it is occurring. Universities occupy an important place among the institutions facing digital transformation, as they should lead the cultural shift that it implies. The transition to new ways of executing critical mission processes and procedures in the institutions leveraging digital artefacts leads to the consideration of the design and definition of strategic organizational units dedicated to implementing meaningful and valuable technology solutions. However, this should also lead to the creation of a digital culture aligned with the dynamics of new technological ecosystems. Higher education institutions are no stranger to these challenges. Many are undergoing renewals and structural reviews of their administrative and academic processes. The improvements they make using new technologies stand to benefit both the university community and wider society, which are the central reasons for the existence of universities. In accordance with the above, higher education institutions should propose the following as a general objective: ‘to foster a community attuned to innovation in the University, through a digital transformation, where the advancement of technology and emerging trends maximize collaboration, active learning, research and creation, in a way that encourages interdisciplinary critical thinking in order to help to the sustainable development of society’. It is not a myth but a reality that higher education institutions, like many other organizations, are being affected by several social and technological global trends towards digitalisation. The digital transformation process is potentially disruptive and needs further study due to its impact on their constitution. Therefore, the researchers suggest developing a complete research program around this phenomenon, in which new spaces for evaluation, reflection, redesign of processes and design of proposals can be created. Thus, culture of innovation, through a digital transformation, becomes an institutional way of life learned, shared and transmitted both by directive bodies, at both academic and administrative levels of the university.