Educational institutions are becoming more agile by design

Conor O’Dwyer

Head of Government & Public Sector, Grant Thornton

The nature of education is changing. To keep up with the ever-evolving expectations of learners, academic institutions must become more agile, innovative and collaborative.

In a world of fast-paced technological innovation, nothing stands still. The education sector is no exception.

Lifelong, personalised digital learning

“Technology has changed the way we work, shop, bank and communicate,” says Conor O’Dwyer, Head of Government and Public Sector at professional services provider, Grant Thornton. Gone are the days when graduates left university, found jobs and never had to think about study again.

There’s now an increasing demand for modular educational experiences that can be consumed in bite-sized chunks by students of all ages and backgrounds, either online or in person. We have entered the age of personalised, skills-based and lifelong learning.

How sweeping change leads to shifts in expectations

To remain relevant, colleges and universities must optimise their educational offerings and make them more accessible to a wider student cohort. They have to become far more agile and open to rapid adaptation, iterative innovation and better collaboration, both with competing institutions and industry.

“This challenge isn’t going away,” notes O’Dwyer. “In fact, with the advent of generative AI, it’s reasonable to expect the pace of change to accelerate, and learner expectations to become even more sophisticated in the years ahead.”

The skills students developed
five years ago won’t be the skills
they’ll need five years from now.

Looking internationally, it’s clear this isn’t just a local phenomenon. Dennis Morrone, GT’s Global Head of Higher Education, sees even more pronounced changes in the US. “Rising tuition costs, a competitive labour market and a growing perception that the US economy is shifting toward vocational and skills-based employment, have led to scepticism about the return on investment of traditional college education,” Morrone notes. “The Higher Education sector is also grappling with structural shifts globally due to financial and demographic challenges.”

Against this backdrop, Higher Education institutions in Ireland must start their agility journey with leaders making a top-down commitment to
student-centred change. It’s about building capability, embedding agile principles into governance structures, aligning institutional strategies and helping staff (and students, in some cases) understand what changes are happening and why they are necessary.

Some academic institutions will be used to this type of change in a slow and deliberate way. “However, we need to move away from that,” O’Dwyer adds. “There must be more willingness to learn quickly, test, iterate — and fail, ideally fast. If failure isn’t an option, people are afraid to try new things and innovation and agility can never be achieved.”

Why our Technological Universities are models of agility

Thankfully, there is a successful example to follow: Ireland’s technological universities. First established in 2019 with the creation of TU Dublin (a merger between three Institutes of Technology), they have shown how reform catalyses agility. Another example can be seen with Higher Education clusters, which were formalised in 2011 as part of the Government’s National Strategy for Higher Education.

“The good news is that the educational sector doesn’t have to start the process of building agility from scratch because changes like these mean the sector has experienced considerable change in recent years,” says O’Dwyer. “These policy changes, now implemented, have delivered institutions that share academic planning, give students more choice and engage with industry and community.”

Data-led education strategy

Finally, it’s important to recognise that data-driven decision-making is the backbone of agile transformation. To respond to emerging needs with precision and foresight, academic institutions should ensure they employ enhanced data management and analytics capabilities. This can help them understand, for example, the skills needed to support growth in different sectors, nationally and regionally. “The skills students developed five years ago won’t be the skills they’ll need five years from now,” emphasises O’Dwyer.

Expert support for agile transformation

Becoming agile isn’t easy, so institutions should be prepared to call on external support. “We have considerable experience working with clients across the education sector,” says O’Dwyer. “We help build change management capability across programme teams and senior leadership to maximise the likelihood of success when making significant investments in complex transformation. This is where Grant Thornton can bring real value.”