Pandemic Privatisation in Higher Education: Edtech & University Reform
emergence of powerful aspirations to modernise HE with technology, with myriad institutional tasks and functions delegated to digital platforms and data systems, supported by a diverse cross-sectoral array of ‘arms length’ HE agencies, think tanks, consultancies, private companies and coalitions (Williamson, 2019). Together, these organisations and technologies are making new digital markets for services and products in HE, which are in turn reshaping universities, colleges and the tertiary education sector itself to act in more market-like ways (Komljenovic and Robertson, 2016). Commercial providers of digital technologies and data systems for HE have therefore become highly influential in the Global HE Industry. They include global education businesses such as Pearson, massive global technology companies including Amazon, Alibaba and Microsoft, education technology market intelligence agencies, investors in HE technologies, ‘visionary’ consultancies and think tanks, and a whole array of education technology vendors, startups and their platforms and services. The global industry of educational technologies and data services has grown to encompass every aspect or ‘market segment’ of HE activity, including: recruitment, enrolment and admissions services; student management systems; core digital infrastructure; management dashboards and analytics platforms; learning management systems and virtual learning environments; digital library and information services; elearning software and courseware; learning analytics; online assessment; plagiarism detection; graduate talent analytics, alumni and graduate relationship management; and more.31
4. Digitalisation and datafication As educational technologies and data services have proliferated over the last decade, researchers have identified significant critical issues. These include emerging forms of digital exclusion and educational inequality, the growth of the education business and technology sectors as agenda-setting and policy-influencing forces in public education, and the increasing roles of commercial platform and infrastructure companies, artificial intelligence and machine learning in defining the future of education, teaching and learning (Selwyn et al, 2020). Educational digital technologies, including recent developments in online education, learning analytics, machine learning and AI, can promote positive developments towards academic improvement, equity, and enhanced forms of teaching 31
Williamson, B. 2020. The Automatic University: A review of datafication and automation in higher education. University and Colleges Union Scotland: https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/10947/The-automatic-university/pdf/ucus_the-automatic-university_ jun20.pdf
15
