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The pandemic kick-started a much-needed reinvention of the higher education sector. The ensuing disruption wrought by COVID-19 brought the traditional teaching model to a screeching halt and raised important questions about incumbent education delivery model at a time when digital technologies have thoroughly transformed people’s lives off campus. There is now a growing need to extend flexibility and equity in education by deploying machine intelligence alongside human ingenuity.

Hyperconnectivity and artificial intelligence (AI) have emerged as the key drivers in higher-ed’s quest to improve student engagement and accessibility, as well as to facilitate greater personalization. This is critical in order to meet the changing skillsets that run modern businesses. As the traditional siloed higher-ed institution takes on a modern avatar aided by machines, the role of humans will also evolve, creating a need for upskilling and optimizing instructional skills.

Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work surveyed 4,000 business leaders from around the world, which included 285 senior higher education executives to understand how digital technologies are being deployed in a world reshaped by the pandemic. Here’s what we found.


For more, read our paper “The Work Ahead in Higher Education: Repaving the Road for the Employees of Tomorrow” or visit “The Work Ahead” section of our website.