The Evolving Role of Technology in Higher Education Landscape

By Balaji Damodaran, Chief Technology Officer, Krea University

In this digital era, technology is deeply intertwined with people’s everyday lives. For instance, the higher education industry no longer sees IT as merely an enabler function, but rather as the backbone of the entire institution. Innovations in technology are happening at a rapid pace, leading to new products and business models. As a result, it is inevitable for institutions to adapt to this ever-changing landscape in order to stay ahead and capitalise on new developments.

For an institution to seamlessly adapt, the following factors are critical:

• Vision and strategy
• Strong IT work force
• Robust and scalable IT systems and solutions
• AI roadmap

Vision and strategy

A clear vision statement should truly reflect the institution’s principles, purpose and value system.  This must be backed by a solid strategy—one that is easy to understand, future-oriented, and most importantly, inspires people to give their best.

Strong IT workforce

A capable and strong technical team is essential to carry forward the institution’s vision and strategy and to transform them into reality.

Robust and scalable IT systems and solutions

The market is flooded with several products and solution accelerators. Institutions can choose the right set of off-the-shelf products that suit their needs. At the same time, building in-house solutions offers complete control, greater flexibility, a competitive advantage, and long-term cost benefits.Rather than choosing one over the other, it is better to strike the right balance between these two approaches. A hybrid model—buying commodity tools, building in-house for control and advantage, and customising open-source tools for flexibility—can deliver the best of both worlds.

AI roadmap

We are already in the midst of the AI wave, with Generative AI (GenAI) growing at an astonishing pace. According to a recent survey, approximately 70% of organisations reported using GenAI in at least one business function in 2024, a significant jump from 33% in 2023. As far as higher education is concerned, the potential is immense. While AI can never replace faculty or classroom teaching, it can certainly be integrated as a layer over existing workflows to support several functions such as student enrolment, document management, teaching assistance, lecture content creation, text-to-speech tools for neurodiverse or visually impaired students, content and language translation, proctoring via computer vision and behaviour monitoring, virtual labs, immersive learning, and much more.

At Krea, we are fortunate to have a strong leadership team (Board of Management, Advisory Group, Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Deans, and Technical Committee) that provides the necessary vision, strategy, and guidance to establish one of the best IT and AI ecosystems in the higher education space. We have a robust IT team and a diverse suite of products, both off-the-shelf and custom-built—to address the institution’s wide-ranging needs. Our commitment to innovation, adaptability, and excellence in technology is not just about meeting today’s demands; it is about shaping the future of higher education.