Higher Education Institutions in Asia Pacific Stand to Double the Rate of Innovation with Artificial Intelligence

• Microsoft Asia and IDC
  Asia/Pacific today unveiled the latest findings for the study, “Future-Ready
  Skills: Assessing APAC Education Sector’s Use of AI” to Education leaders at
  the Asian Summit on Education and Skills (ASES)
• Institutions today that
  have implemented AI in their processes expect to see close to 4 times increased
  funding by 2021
• However, only 32% of higher
  education institutions have embarked on their AI journey

SINGAPORE -�Media OutReach - 23 September
2019 – Microsoft Asia
and IDC Asia/Pacific released findings specific to the education sector for the
study, Future Ready Skills:
Assessing APAC Education Sector’s Use of AI[1], where
it found that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will help double the rate of
innovation improvements for higher education institutions.

 

With student
outcomes being a key performance metric for higher education institutes, many
are turning to leverage data to glean insights and drive improved outcomes.
“For many institutions, student performance has a direct impact on rankings. AI
can be a tool to help better manage outcomes and ensure continued innovation to
optimize operations and enhance student engagements, as it reduces resource
intensive work among faculty and administrative staff,” said Larry Nelson, Regional
General Manager — Education, Microsoft Asia.

 

“In fact, we
found that 3 out 4 education leaders agree that AI will be able to drive
competitiveness in the next 3 years. However, only 32% of education
institutions in Asia Pacific have embarked on their AI journey,” added Nelson.

 

Based on the study, the top business
drivers for education leaders to adopt AI include better student engagement,
higher funding, and accelerated innovation. For institutions that have adopted
AI, they are already seeing improvements in the range of 11% to 28% today in
areas such as higher funding, accelerated innovation, higher competitiveness,
improve efficiency and better student engagement. By 2021, education
institutions with AI stand to experience the biggest jump in higher
funding, which is expected to increase by 3.7x, higher than most industry
sectors in Asia Pacific.

Fig 1: AI improves business
today and in three years

 

Developing a globally
engaged citizenry is of utmost importance for all countries and is also one of
Japan’s key priorities. However, many students would avoid these opportunities
as doing so can delay them from taking the classes they need for graduation.  As one of the top universities in Japan
serving over 17,000 students, the Faculty of Engineering at Hokkaido University has embarked on its AI
journey as part of its mission to encourage students to study abroad.

 

In a bid to remove this
obstacle and contribute to a better abroad experience, the university developed
a Microsoft Azure-based e-learning system that enables students to keep up with
coursework back home. Leveraging AI and automation capabilities, the system
helped the university broaden student access, expand capacity, streamline
course prep from days to hours, and enhance security — transforming the abroad
learning experience.

 

“Our Azure-based
e-learning system far better meets the needs of our students, who can access
courses from PC, Android, iOS, and other devices. This gives them a more
enjoyable and convenient educational experience,” said Professor Yukinori
Kobayashi, Doctor of Engineering and Director of the Graduate School of
Engineering, Hokkaido University.

 

Asia Pacific’s Education
Institutions Need to Focus on its Strategy and Investment, Culture and Data

The Study evaluated six dimensions contributing to the
sector’s AI readiness. The educational sector is currently lagging in Data, Strategy
and Investment, as well as Culture when compared to Asia Pacific’s overall AI
readiness. This signifies that more work needs to be done for these specific
areas for educational institutions to remain competitive.

 

1.    
Data: Education institutions need to work on
availability, quality and governance of existing data

Data readiness is a key issue for education
institutions. Today, data within higher education institutes is siloed, with
limited usage of a cloud platform for scalability. Institutes also face issues
with data timeliness and quality from sources, and a lack of governance
practices to ensure trust in data usage.

 

2.    
Strategy and Investment: Education institutions need
to evaluate investment allocation to support their AI strategy 

For education institutions to reap the benefits of AI,
they must have a sound AI strategy in place to help improve their AI readiness.
With this, they need to also look at investment strategies that can be
allocated to support organization-wide AI efforts.  

3.    
Culture: Traits required for AI adoption lacking in education
institutions

More than half of the education staff, and nearly half
of the education leaders polled believe that cultural traits and behaviors are not pervasive in their organization today. For example, 67% of staff
and 46% of education leaders do not agree that staff are empowered to take
risks, and act with speed and agility within the institution.

 

“For education institutions to fully harness
the power of AI, they will need to work on developing an AI strategy which can
help better integrate AI elements in various areas of the institution. To do so,
they will first need to have better data hygiene and work on improving data readiness.
Lastly, culture is an important key to help nurture the AI-mindset. Education
leaders will need to develop an innovative culture and empower their staff to
work in an agile manner,” said Victor Lim, Vice President, Consulting Operations, IDC
Asia/Pacific.

 

AI
Skills Required for Future of Educational Sector

Both education leaders and staff in the
education sector are equally positive about AI’s impact on jobs. Majority of education
leaders (61%) and staff (61%) believe that AI will either help to do their
existing jobs better or reduce repetitive tasks. In addition, both are
optimistic of the impact AI will bring to their jobs, with 21% of education
leaders believing that AI will create new jobs while 13% of staff agreeing so.

Fig 2: Perception of AI’s
impact on jobs (Management and Staff)

 

However, according to education leaders,
the skills required for an AI future are in shortage. The
top three skills identified to face a shortage of supply in the next three
years include:

• IT skills and programming
• Digital skills
• Quantitative, analytical
  and statistical skills

The
Study also noted that there is a disconnect with education leaders’ perception of their staff’s
willingness to reskill. Although the education leaders realize that there is an
urgent need for reskilling efforts in order to cultivate an AI-ready workforce,
they are not fully convinced that their staff are committed to being reskilled.
Based on the study, 26% of education leaders felt that workers have no interest
to reskill, but only 11% of staff had no interest.

 

“Education management needs to better understand their
staff and prioritize reskilling efforts to address skills shortage. Only then, are
they able to bring their respective institutions forward into an AI future, and
achieve better student outcomes,” shared Nelson.

 

Asian Summit on Education and Skills

These key findings were unveiled at the Asian Summit on Education and Skills (ASES) held in Bangalore, India from 22 — 24 September 2019.
ASES is a leadership and ministerial event dedicated to the education and
skills sector, where Microsoft has been the founding partner for its six
editions.

 

The annual summit convenes education system leaders,
policy makers and key education institution representatives from across Asia to
discuss challenges and opportunities in policy formulation and implementation
in the sector. Hosting various sessions of insight and inspiration led by
leading education pioneers and experts discussing industry trends and best practices,
ASES is attended by senior ministerial delegations and eminent education
leaders from India, and delegates from over 15 countries.

 

To
learn about how AI can make a difference in the education sector, visit https://news.microsoft.com/apac/education-asia/

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