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Innovating for a new generation

What a lot of us forget is that technology is a means to an end. It does not operate in a bubble. It saves lives when applied in healthcare, it streamlines business processes across industry verticals and, most importantly, it empowers a sector that is the lifeblood of all economies — higher education.

In a young country like the UAE, the youth (15 to 24 years) form nearly a quarter of the population and this is the generation that will drive the next phase of growth and support the UAE’s vision of economic diversification.

It is our combined responsibility to ensure that these young UAE brand ambassadors have access to the best education, infrastructure and guidance that is required to support the growing opportunities over the next few years. Expo 2020 alone is expected to add Dh140 billion to Dubai’s GDP and result in 277,000 new job opportunities over seven years!

This is where technology comes into play

Technology can enable, support and streamline higher education — from enhancing the student experience, to supporting university enrollment and management, furthering knowledge community collaboration, and addressing many of the challenges faced by institutions and students today.

At Ellucian, we support more than 70 institutions across the Middle East and 2,400 institutions in 40 countries around the world. Through our experience — as we provide strategic guidance to help education institutions of all kinds navigate change — we are able to identify key technologies that will impact higher education in the region.

The most notable amongst these is mobility

Mobile apps are one of the most effective ways to connect with students and the faculty. The UAE University (UAEU) created an app with the help of Ellucian as a response to this growing requirement. More than 5,000 users installed the app within the first few days and it currently receives almost 1 million views per month.

Ellucian Mobile is a customisable app that provides access to information and notifications, courses, class schedules and results, and allows students to register, locate the university campus, get fees reminders, and communicate with teachers and students with the same amount of effort it takes to check one’s Facebook newsfeed.

Another technology game-changer in education is cloud

Cloud-based solutions help reduce risk through 24/7 monitoring and disaster recovery, ensure university applications are up-to-date so institutions can get the strongest benefit and ROI, deliver consistent service levels at predictable costs so institutions can manage budgets more effectively, and boost effectiveness while reducing overall cost of ownership.

Another major advantage is that cloud can support collaboration for research and enable neighbouring Arab universities to share high quality resources. This does away with the traditional silos in education and fosters knowledge sharing, which has resulted in stronger educational communities, working together to deliver more integrated services to students in the UAE and across the Middle East.

But, with all this talk of technology and how it impacts higher education, the irony is that there is also a need for good old-fashioned, face-to-face collaboration. Ellucian facilitates this with Ellucian Live Middle East, an annual education conference held in the UAE every December, which connects more than 500 decision makers and policy influencers from across the region in one of the largest learning networks of its kind in the Arab world. It represents a community dedicated to helping create new possibilities for institutions and the students they serve — with the support of the right technology. Needless to say, it is not just about providing cutting edge technology, but technology that keeps up with the actual needs of society at large.

It is vital for the education community to engage in regular interaction and to also ensure a two-way dialogue with students, as well as embrace technology, in order to keep up with the need for rapid evolution in education.

Mathew Boice is the Vice President Middle East & Africa, Ellucian.