Institutions across the Asia Pacific (APAC) region are on an exciting journey to become fully connected, agile, and future ready.
Graham Battersby, Senior Manager, Solutions Consulting APAC, at Ellucian, discusses how the transformation taking place will help tertiary education institutions create digital ecosystems that streamline operations, flex to meet changing market demands, and lay the technical foundations for a digitally enabled future.
What is a Digital Ecosystem in Tertiary Education?
A digital ecosystem is a fully connected network of systems and data that supports how institutions operate, deliver teaching and learning, and engage with students, academics, and staff.
It allows systems to work together seamlessly, so information can be accessed and shared easily across departments, decisions are made based on the most accurate data, and institutions can become more agile and responsive to change.
From student information to administration and other key institutional functions, an ecosystem creates a unified environment where processes flow efficiently.
What is the Impact of Fragmented Systems?
The challenge for many institutions is that legacy systems often create data silos, duplicated effort, and operational inefficiencies.
Information such as the latest student numbers or course details might be updated in one system but not reflected across the whole organisation. This could lead to staff working with outdated information, students receiving grade errors, or conflicting course schedules and an institution struggling to make informed, timely decisions.
If an international student becomes an Australian resident, for example, multiple teams are involved to update their citizenship, visa, and enrolment records and adjust fees. Without a seamlessly connected ecosystem, this is a manual process with multiple hand-off points which could take weeks and be prone to data error. In a digital ecosystem, it can happen instantly as the different systems all talk to each other automatically.
How Can Institutions Start to Build a Digital Ecosystem?
The idea of building an ecosystem can bring about visions of a massive, years-long project ending in a ‘big bang’ go-live before any benefits are seen. But digital ecosystems don’t have to be created all at once. They can evolve gradually, at a pace that suits each institution.
Institutions can update capabilities piece by piece, making incremental changes that deliver benefits along the way. Modernising a student management system will have a significant strategic impact, for example, without needing to replace the system used to print student ID cards or manage access to the library.
The key is to have a strong core platform that will deliver operational efficiency and a better experience for students. Once that’s in place, institutions can continue to expand and connect systems over time and gradually unlock the full value of a comprehensive, unified digital ecosystem.
What are the Benefits of a Fully Connected Digital Ecosystem?
The impact of a fully connected digital ecosystem can be transformative for students, academics, and staff.
Students want to enrol on courses, check their grades, or access online learning materials quickly and easily. They don’t need to know what systems are running in the background, they just want everything to work smoothly. When systems can automatically talk to each other, students spend less time struggling with IT issues or waiting for spinning web pages and more time focused on learning.
Decision-making also becomes faster and more reliable when a fully connected technology ecosystem allows data to flow smoothly across an institution. Timetabling teams can schedule tutors or lab spaces based on the latest student numbers, enrolment figures can be tracked in real time, and departments can make decisions using the same accurate information.
Collaboration improves too. Where processes cross operational teams — for example, a research student who receives a stipend but needs to take a leave of absence; the information can be shared instantly with the teams who need it and payments can be stopped automatically.
As markets shift and skills trends change, institutions with digital ecosystems can adapt quickly to introduce create new course offerings, such as new AI in Business course or Sustainable Energy unit within weeks, not many months or years. A new curriculum management tool can slot easily into the existing infrastructure and cloud-based systems automatically scale up or down to match demand during peak periods such as enrolment or results day, without interruptions.
With a fully connected digital ecosystem, tertiary education institutions can run more efficiently, respond more proactively to new opportunities, and put the right information into the hands of students, academics, and staff when they need it.
What Should Institutions Consider When Building a Digital Ecosystem?
Institutions don’t need to rip everything out and start from scratch to shift to a digital ecosystem; they can move incrementally. CIOs can look at their existing set up to identify which systems are working well, where upgrades should be prioritised, and what changes will deliver the biggest impact.
Systems can be plugged in over time, and with API technology, new tools can be connected to existing platforms as the institution’s needs change. It gives them the flexibility to modernise, integrate innovative solutions as they’re needed and build a fully connected ecosystem to support long-term strategic planning and growth.
How Can Ellucian Help?
Ellucian has worked closely with tertiary education institutions across APAC for many years. Our teams have a deep understanding of the sector and how it is changing to meet the challenges and opportunities ahead. We combine this local insight with decades of experience from around the world to help institutions plan and deliver digital ecosystems that achieve their strategic goals.
Ellucian also works with technology and delivery partners across the sector to ensure a stable, scalable, and robust digital ecosystem is established to support efficient campus operations.
At the heart of this is our AI-powered SaaS platform, designed to transform every area of an institution. Built on API architecture and powered by core student management capabilities, it makes integrating new systems simple and flexible, allowing universities to modernise over time.
Ellucian invests in designing and delivering solutions for tertiary education that improve efficiency, drive student success and analyse data at speed to spot trends, inform decision making, and meet local reporting requirements.
Find out more about how Ellucian’s powerful SaaS platform can help your institution transform for a technology-enabled future.
