Students are King: Mapping the emerging digitial technologies for higher eduation

This empirically driven study identifies and maps the new digital solutions emerging from start-ups serving the higher education (HE) sector. We ask the question, what will a digitally induced ecosystem of higher education look like? Our preliminary findings, from an analysis of a dataset drawn from the Dealroom database, of 78 funded technology firms, suggest that the students’ response to these innovations is particularly crucial. We find a sector where technologies are primarily developed for students to adopt directly, rather than indirectly mediated by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).

That many of these innovations cut HEIs out of the value chain, provides some indications of the scope for a more personalised and student-directed experience of HE in the future, if students proceed to adopt these solutions. We present these interim findings and discuss them with respect to future research questions we might explore, through and following our research.