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Universities should harness technology to provide a seamless student journey and greater learning flexibility to meet the changing expectations of the next generation of students.

Ahead of , one of the most pressing issues facing institutions is how to provide an experience that will attract and retain students.

Ucas reported a slight decline in the number of applications this year, and, according to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, 5.3 per cent of young students dropped out of their degree course in 2019-20 after the first year. For mature students, the figure was nearly 12 per cent. 

Louise Thorpe, vice-president of client experience for Europe, Middle East and Africa at edtech company Anthology, says universities must consider how their education experience is meeting the expectations of digitally savvy students.

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, students typically expected a campus-based experience that would be “augmented by technology”, Thorpe says. But expectations have changed as technology has progressed.

“Now what we see is students have an expectation of a more hybrid learning experience where technology is used in a much more seamless way,” Thorpe says. “They are expecting flexibility. We see students who are taking six modules looking for more hybridity, where maybe four of them are delivered in a more traditional way and two of them are delivered completely online, but they would still be an on-campus student with all that experience suggests.

“It’s not just about the mode of delivery, it’s also flexibility in the format of the resources – so having access to audio, video, alternative formats and being able to access them on devices they are familiar with, like their mobile phone.”

Students also expect a “seamless journey” in terms of their broader experience. “Students have become much wiser about their data and also about how they interact with the institution,” says Thorpe. “So, if they’ve shared a piece of information with one part of the institution, they expect all the rest of the institution to know that information, too.”

Higher education leaders are increasingly focusing on digital transformation to be more agile when responding to students and to help them reimagine teaching for the modern day.

This includes providing a personalised experience so a student can, for example, choose when and how they access course materials such as a recorded lecture, and how they receive information from the university.

“Having these tools that empower the individual to do what is best for them, when is best for them, is fundamental, and technology can support that,” says Thorpe. “It’s about how institutions can meet those expectations at scale. You’re trying to provide a personalised experience for every single one of your 30,000 or 40,000 students. You could do it, theoretically, manually, but that’s quite a challenge. Technology enables you to be able to provide that flexibility.”

Universities also have a responsibility to support professional and academic staff in using the digital learning tools that help students succeed. Thorpe says academics will naturally have different levels of digital teaching and learning “confidence and capability” and must be guided in how embedding technology can benefit their students.

“It’s about knowing where to start and understanding the reason behind it, not technology for technology’s sake,” she says. “It could be providing a more active learning experience or designing an activity to encourage students to collaborate. It’s a matter of choosing what’s the most appropriate thing for your discipline, your programme of study, your personality as an academic.”

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