In an era where many students invest over £60,000 in a university education, the question of value for money has become a defining factor in university choice. But “value” is not universal. For some students, it’s access to high-quality in-person instruction and academic community. For others, it’s flexibility, digital access and the ability to learn on their own terms.
This shift in student expectations is more than a pedagogical or cultural trend – it represents a strategic challenge and opportunity for CIOs in higher education, whose digital strategies must now accommodate a diverse and increasingly self-aware cohort of learners.
According to the 2023/24 Jisc Digital Experience Insights Survey, 49% of students said they preferred some or all of their classes to be delivered online. That’s not just a post-pandemic preference – it reflects a generational shift in how students perceive quality, independence and accessibility in learning.
Universities that embrace this shift are adapting fast. The University of Birmingham, for example, has made significant investments in a digital platform that records lectures and pairs them with supporting resources, slideware, and recommended reading. The approach encourages live attendance but provides a digital safety net – allowing students to revisit lectures for reinforcement, catch up if they’re unwell, or engage in learning at a pace or style that suits them – especially relevant for students with neurodiverse needs.
Birmingham is not alone in making such an investment and it reflects a clear trend: students increasingly expect the ability to engage digitally when they choose, without it being seen as a second-tier experience.
But there is a risk to this approach. According to Jisc 41% of the 28,679 students interviewed did most of their learning in shared spaces such as Café’s due to inadequate facilities at home. This brings challenges not just from a student experience perspective, but from a cyber threat perspective too.
Despite the growing demand for digital flexibility, not all students are convinced. Some feel strongly that face-to-face interaction represents better value, citing greater connection with tutors, more engaging discussions, and a clearer sense of academic community.
The same Jisc survey found that only 38% of students felt involved in digital decision-making, which may explain some of the frustration with online delivery — especially when it’s perceived as a cost-saving measure rather than a learning enhancement.
This has prompted some universities to lean in the other direction – reducing group sizes, increasing seminar time and setting clear expectations for attendance. In doing so, they aim to reinforce in-person learning as a premium offer, particularly in subject areas that rely on debate, practical engagement, or lab work.
It’s clear that students are making decisions based not just on rankings or course content, but on learning format. And this creates a fundamental challenge – and opportunity – for CIOs.
There’s an emerging question, will UK universities split into two models: digital-first institutions versus in-person traditionalists?
More likely is the rise of the hybrid-by-design university, one that allows departments to tailor their delivery models, whilst ensuring a consistent baseline digital experience for all students.
For CIOs, this means building infrastructure that supports choice – platforms that are robust but flexible, tools that are consistent but not restrictive, and policies that reflect both academic and student needs.
This also demands cross-functional leadership and an increased focus on digital skills across the institution. Digital strategy is no longer just about IT infrastructure, it’s about learning experience, inclusion, engagement and ecosystem, all of which are crucial to institutional attractiveness.
Today’s students are not passive recipients of education. They are discerning, diverse, and increasingly selective about how they want to learn. For universities, this means that digital learning isn’t just a support function – it’s a defining feature of the student experience.
CIOs play a critical role in enabling this shift – not by pushing everything online, but by supporting flexibility, building trust, and ensuring quality across formats.
One promising model is a hybrid-by-design approach, where core course content – lectures, readings, and foundational materials – is made available online, giving students the freedom to absorb the essentials at their own pace. This, in turn, frees up in-person time for discussion, collaboration, feedback, and deeper engagement – the aspects of learning that students and staff alike value most.
Such a model offers the best of both worlds: it respects the growing demand for digital access, while protecting and enhancing the human connections that define a high-quality university experience.
The digital learning environment is no longer just a convenience – it is a strategic asset that can help institutions differentiate, adapt and thrive in a competitive and evolving Higher Education landscape.
Founder / Director
Matt is one of Roc's founders and brings extensive experience across the tech sector, especially within the higher education industry. Dedicated to supporting strategic customers, Matt pairs deep industry expertise with a collaborative, long-term approach that helps organisations innovate and succeed.
Enterprise networks have reached an inflection point. Hybrid working is now embedded, cloud applications proliferate, and data moves continuously between users, devices and locations. UK organisations now manage more cloud identities than traditional endpoints, and more than half of enterprise traffic originates outside the office. As a result, network reliability, security and performance have shifted from operational concerns to board-level priorities.
AI is now woven into every part of cybersecurity operations. It analyses behaviour, identifies anomalies, and increasingly, takes action on its own. It’s faster, tireless, and in many cases more consistent than any analyst could be. But with that progress comes a harder question: how much decision-making are we prepared to give away?
There’s no escaping the squeeze. Demand is rising, budgets are flat, and no one’s in the mood for another “game-changing” announcement. People have heard so many promises of ‘once in a generation’ transformation that hype doesn’t hold much weight anymore.
There’s a moment every organization faces when it has to stop pretending the cracks aren’t there. The systems that don’t quite talk to each other. The processes everyone works around. The decisions that were right once — but no longer are.
In the context of limited investment, socio-economic disruption, and accelerated demands, the CIO mandate is clear: do more, deliver faster, spend less. Clear. But impossible.
AI has become the defining force in cybersecurity, not because it’s new, but because it’s everywhere. It’s now threaded through every layer of the threat landscape: attackers use it to accelerate their operations, while defenders rely on it to hold the line. The same technology powers both sides, and neither can afford to stop using it.
Emerging technology has an irresistible pull. Every CIO knows the feeling: a new platform promises efficiency, a new algorithm claims intelligence, a new vendor insists you’re falling behind. The pressure to adopt can be immense – from boards, from peers, from the market itself.
AI is arriving in universities at remarkable speed, but deciding how it should be used is proving far harder to match.
That was one of the clearest messages from the recent DIG25 roundtable hosted by Roc Technologies and the University of Reading – a conversation that surfaced not just what AI is doing in Higher Education, but what AI is demanding of it.
Progress shouldn’t feel this hard. Yet for many organisations, despite years of digital investment, transformation can feel like driving with the handbrake on. The ambition and tools are there but something unseen slows everything down.