Datafication of higher education: on the opportunities and struggles of economic and use value of digital

In this talk, I focus on the complex interplay between universities and EdTech startups as they both strive to make digital data valuable. Universities are increasingly seeking to become data-driven organisations, thus making data useful for purposes such as personalisation, automation, and efficiency. However, the process of datafication brings many challenges that include the aspirational, technological, legal, commercial, organisational, ideological, and existential dimensions. Similarly, EdTech startups, striving to monetise user data (i.e. making it economically valuable), face their own struggles in generating value from data products. These startups experiment with different approaches, but encounter obstacles such as high costs, proving use-value to universities, transparency issues, and managing investor relations. Our analysis highlights the tensions and synergies between these two groups of actors as they navigate the socio-technical, political, and economic complexities of making digital data valuable and actionable. I explore how universities’ aspirations for datafication intersect with the commercial ambitions of EdTech startups.

Dr Janja Komljenovic, Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh

Janja is a Senior Lecturer in Education Futures at the University of Edinburgh. Her research focuses on the political economy of higher education digitalisation; the digitalisation, datafication, and platformisation of universities; and new forms of economic and social value in digital higher education. Her approach intersects economic sociology, science and technology studies, and higher education research. She has published internationally on higher education policy, higher education markets, and educational technology. Janja act as a consultant on various international higher education policy projects, is an evaluator of national quality assurance agencies, and a member of international organisations’ committees.