Education 4.0 as a Driver for Institutional Change in Higher Education: A Qualitative Study of Educational Transformation in a Danish HEI

Abstract

In recent years, the concept of "Education 4.0" has emerged as a response to the technological, social, and economic transformations that have accompanied the rise of Industry 4.0 (Rienties, 2023; Miranda et al., 2021; Salmon, 2019). As industries increasingly integrate advanced technologies such as AI, big data, and the Internet of Things, institutions of higher education (HE) are similarly compelled to rethink their structures, methods, and objectives. Education 4.0 aims to equip learners with the skills needed in an evolving digital economy, promoting critical thinking, adaptability, and digital literacy (Oliveira & Souza, 2022; Alenezi, 2021). This paper presents a study of a program aimed at building capacity for Education 4.0 through a targeted and strategic organizational program in a higher education institution in Denmark. For two years, researchers applied a formative dialogue research-approach, where the activities were studied in real time without direct involvement of the researchers in the activities. Through interviews with stakeholders across three organisational tiers (the strategic, the tactical, and the operational level), our study explores to which extent, and by which means, the targeted program enhanced institutional capacity, contributing to the broader goal of integrating Education 4.0. The main research question was: "How can a targeted organizational change program enhance capacity building at strategic, tactical, and operational levels to support the implementation of Education 4.0 in higher education?" Through analysis of a series of indepth interviews, we find that the program takes a technology-driven approach despite intentions of the opposite; that management of the institution sees great potential for change in the program; and that participants in the program's experimental activities can get caught between innovation, everyday practices, and educational culture.