There are dozens of higher education institutions in South Africa and, like in every country, they face challenges and opportunities both ubiquitous and uniquely their own. To delve into these realities, Anthology invited CIOs from South Africa’s leading institutions to participate in two-days of thought-provoking panels, insights sharing, and community-building activities.
A Tier 1 Corporate Partner of HEITSA, Anthology hosted the Higher Education CIO Exchange to demonstrate the value they place on localisation and partnership in the communities they serve. In addition to Anthology’s local staff, they partner with OneConnect, a provider of technology solutions with two offices in South Africa.
“We compared South African Higher Education Institutions’ against the wider global community in order to understand the challenges, recognise trends and correlate patterns,” David Millington, Anthology’s vice president of product strategy, said of the event. “We had some excellent dialogue from the group, many of whom had travelled from all across the country.”
Nearly 20 South African CIOs attended, as well as esteemed speaker and the country’s deputy minister of higher education, science, and innovation, who discussed the state of education in South Africa and the possibility of switching to a centralised admissions system.
Key Takeaways
Digital Transformation
One theme that permeated the event was “digital transformation,” and more specifically, “what precisely is digital transformation?”
Everyone had different takes on the hackneyed term. To some, digital transformation (DT) meant the transition of manual to automated processes. To others, it was an improvement to the student experience or flexibility in the workplace. It was clear that institutions who are having the most success are approaching it from both aspects.
Over-enrolment
Another theme was how data could provide a much-needed revamp to their current systems. Through automating the admissions process, applicants would receive updates as they progress from prospective to admitted students. Frequent alerts along the way would keep prospective students up-to-date and invested in the outcome.
Cybersecurity/Cloud
With load shedding, some CIOs raised the concern of what happens to university server information if the area loses power or if there is an attempted data breach. It is expensive for any IT team to implement measures such as advanced threat detection, high availability, regulatory compliance and vulnerability monitoring, but as Anthology SaaS solutions are effective and secure, many CIOs considered this to be a viable option.
Learn more at www.anthology.com
Press release: https://www.anthology.com/en-emea/blog/insights-from-top-cios-on-the-future-of-higher-education-in-south-africa