The massive reform of European higher education centered on the Bologna Process which if carried, will transform the way that most of the continent’s universities function. Universities and higher education institutions will make use of ICT to help manage a large, expanding and more mobile student population. Also as digital technology becomes ubiquitous in the modern workplace, so the pressure on education to produce ICT-savvy graduates will increase.
The potential of information technology to revolutionize education has long been talked about. Many thousands of parents have purchased computers in the belief that they will assist with their children’s education. However, across European education, both in the classroom and in the back office administration, the use of ICT has remained limited. This is changing rapidly as the pressures on both higher and school level education force the pace of adoption.
Spend on ICT will grow to $7.7 billion by 2010
Spend on ICT by Education institutions in Europe will increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.7% between 2004 and 2008. That of the new EU states and those hoping for entry will grow even faster, with CAGRs of 13.4% and 15.1% respectively over the same period.
Those markets new to the EU offer opportunities to ICT vendors as they rapidly upgrade their infrastructures’ with the help of EU money. At the same time those nations jockeying to enter the EU are also attempting to upgrade rapidly to make ready for access to the wider European market.
The massive reform of European higher education centered on the Bologna Process will transform the way that most of the continent’s universities function
The Bologna Process is a massive reform of all European tertiary education, which, if carried through, will have far reaching implications for all its institutions. It aims to enable the creation of a single European higher education area by converging academic degree systems and quality assurance standards across Europe. The process will directly impact ICT adoption through:
– ePortfolios: an electronic resume that can be ported easily across all these borders, to enable the fluid movement of both students and staff;
– Credit transfer: systems to permit transfer and comparison of credits between education providers;
– Administrative overhaul: Bologna will cause institutions to overhaul their existing administrative systems and this provides them with an opportunity to streamline using ICT.
Primary and secondary education will continue to dominate education ICT spending
Schools will continue to expand their use of ICT to meet the demands being placed on them. In particular:
– to provide better value for money
– to provide students with the ICT skills to compete in the modern economy
– to close the digital divide between the IT-haves and have-nots
Increasingly education providers at all levels are realizing the opportunities to reduce the cost of functions such as payroll, accounts and grants management.
ICT vendors should now be looking to tailor their marketing based on where decisions are taken in different national markets. PC and networking vendors in particular need to be aware of the opportunities presented by the rapidly growing new EU members, and considerable opportunity exists for large vendors to get involved with government at a national level.
