Abstract:

With the advent of Industry 4.0 revolution and the push towards online education effected by the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a perceived need for increasing the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) content of the existing curricula. Thus, the academic staff with an ICT specialization (ICT academic staff) of a Higher Education Institution (HEI) could be the first resource to be tapped. To explore the importance of ICT academic staff within an HEI, quantitative analysis at institutional level is carried out using RISIS-ETER microdata for European universities.

The methodology takes into account the (relative) lack of existing research in this area and has a strong exploratory focus. In an initial phase, it comprises descriptive statistics and correlation analysis, to gain an overall understanding of the importance of ICT academic staff in relation to academic staff with other specializations, according to the ISCED-F single-digit classification, and with several key educational indicators. Factor analysis, regression analysis, and association analysis are then employed to detail and validate the initial findings, and obtain the final results. The use of several methods is needed due to strong relationships between some variables, and (potential) endogeneity of the data.

Results reveal a strong divide between universities. Those with academic staff having one or two specializations usually lack ICT academic staff. For the others, the existence of ICT academic staff has a strong association with the existence of academic staff with either Business, Administration and Law, or Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction, specializations. Some associations between ICT and Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics academic staff headcounts were also significant.

HEIs with ICT academic staff tend to have higher student mobility, more foreign-born academics and international students, and fewer female academics. While the student/professor ratio is slightly higher in HEIs without ICT academic staff, it increases by about 18% when the share of ICT academic staff goes up by 1%. Expected graduation rates at the Bachelor’s level are lower for HEIs with ICT academic staff, which is likely due to a higher share of Arts and Humanities students. For Master’s students, the existence of ICT academic staff is associated with a 3.4% higher graduation rate among students enrolled in non-ICT majors.

This research indicates that HEIs with academic staff with Business, Administration and Law, or Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction, specializations, may have more internal resources available for increasing the ICT content of their curricula, perhaps through the use of multidisciplinary approaches and knowledge transfer strategies, while other universities may need to invest in upgrading the ICT skills of their non-ICT academic staff. Exploring several characteristics associated with the existence and size of ICT academic staff by controlling for different factors (e.g. size of the institution) may yield actionable insights for successful and sustainable higher education management and development policies.

Keywords:

Higher education policies, academic staff, ICT, educational management, digitalization.