A campus that not only educates but also adapts, it is a place where learning seamlessly integrates with the latest advancements. It is also a place where your phone or laptop isn’t just a device, but a key to unlocking a world of endless possibilities. A ”smart campus” (see Figure 1) brings modern technologies to the campus and transforms the traditional way of providing educational and other campus services.
Figure 1 Visualisation of a smart campus
Source: Rosenberger (2020)
Smart Campus in Chinese University
The concept of ‘smart’ has been explored across various scales, encompassing smart homes, smart buildings, smart campus, and smart cities [2]. Here, the ‘smart’ is used to explain the intelligent object, such as artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and the internet of things [3]. However, a smart campus cannot just be seen as an integration of applications and infrastructure around the campus. Some scholars regard a smart campus to be part of smart cities, with the influencing factors of economy, society, and regulation needing to be analysed [4]. As an example, the University of Málaga conducted research and innovation in smart campuses development, contributing significantly to the advancement of smart city research [5].
In 2018, the Ministry of Education of China released the Education Informatisation 2.0 Action Plan, marking a significant national policy aimed at advancing educational digitalisation. In the same year, a national standard outlining the comprehensive framework for smart campus development was introduced, providing a foundational structure for implementing these initiatives across universities. These policies and standards have served as comprehensive guidelines, offering specific directives for the implementation of smart campus initiatives within individual universities. They have defined explicit specifications governing the deployment and execution of intelligent environments and services. Since then, several leading universities, represented by Tsinghua, Peking and Fudan Universities, are starting to consider how to solve the problems of data interoperability and certification unification, rather than the separate systems of the past [6].
Challenges of the Smart Campus in China
Drawing from the model crafted by Granstrand and Holgersson[7], the author presents an analysis of a smart campus challenges across five key dimensions: actors, activities, resources, technologies, and institutions. This analysis was conducted as part of the author’s doctoral programme using a case study methodology, and the outlined challenges are derived from data collected during fieldwork. The data, drawn from various sources including documentary research, observation, and semi-structured interviews, were gathered during formal fieldwork conducted at Shaanxi University of Science and Technology in 2022.
- Actors: the conceptual framework of a smart campus necessitates a user-centric approach, prioritizing user experience over a technology-centric perspective. This emphasis is underscored by two pivotal factors: the crucial role played by user experience and acceptance in shaping the success of smart campus implementation, and the significant influence of leadership in driving the campus’s evolution. Notably, leadership’s attention has been instrumental in steering information technology advancements and rendering institutional operations more strategically aligned through superior top-level design.
- Activities: on one hand, the challenge stems from the need to enhance training programs, aiming to improve the information literacy skills of users and cater to the distinct requirements of individual users. On the other hand, there is a need for a focused emphasis on targeted campaigns. Within the university setting, these challenges manifest in two primary ways: Firstly, limited outreach campaigns addressing new applications or features have resulted in end-users lacking accurate and timely access to information. Secondly, a lack of detailed campaigns tailored for non-technical users regarding novel features has led to a diminished comprehension of distinctions between previous iterations.
- Resources: the interconnection of data stands as a primary imperative within the framework of a smart campus. Initially, disparate departmental systems prevalent across the campus landscape have resulted in fragmented data sources, creating data silos. Consequently, efficient data governance emerges as a critical necessity in establishing a university’s smart campus. Furthermore, navigating diverse funding channels to facilitate the construction of a smart campus remains a pressing challenge for contemporary universities.
- Technologies: currently, most universities have established smart campuses primarily focusing on integrating and providing diverse services, but they often lack interactive and intelligent functionalities. Furthermore, information security poses significant challenges within the smart campus environment. Striking a balance between accessibility and stringent security protocols becomes a concern for universities, necessitating the facilitation of smooth operations while upholding the integrity and privacy of data.
- Institutions: at the university level, the implementation of smart campus projects encounters constraints due to stringent regulations governing procurement and public tendering processes. The procurement procedures within Chinese public universities are complex, leading to extended timelines from request initiation to project realization. Furthermore, at the national level, existing smart campus standards and systems prove inadequate for future developmental pursuits. This inadequacy arises as most institutions prioritize distinct objectives during later developmental stages, each advancing along its unique trajectory of growth.
In conclusion, while the convenience brought by a smart campus is undeniable, its implementation also poses a series of challenges. Identifying these prevalent challenges and engaging in discussions about viable solutions within the context of Chinese universities can serve as a guiding framework for similar organisations’ strategic plans, better preparing them for technological innovation.
Note: This blog is based upon the PhD research of Mengfei Zhou at The University of Manchester.
Reference
[1] Rosenberger, “IoT network applications smart campus,” Rosenberger, 2020. .
[2] N. Chagnon-Lessard et al., “Smart Campuses: Extensive Review of the Last Decade of Research and Current Challenges,” IEEE Access, vol. 9, pp. 124200–124234, 2021.
[3] N. Min-Allah and S. Alrashed, “Smart campus—A sketch,” Sustain. Cities Soc., vol. 59, no. May, p. 102231, 2020.
[4] Z. Y. Dong, Y. Zhang, C. Yip, S. Swift, and K. Beswick, “Smart campus: Definition, framework, technologies, and services,” IET Smart Cities, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 43–54, 2020.
[5] S. Fortes et al., “The campus as a smart city: University of málaga environmental, learning, and research approaches,” Sensors (Switzerland), vol. 19, no. 6, 2019.
[6] Y. Mi, “The former, present and future life of the online ’one-stop‘ office hall for universities,” Anhui Normal University, 2019. [Online]. Available: https://imc.ahnu.edu.cn/info/1181/2675.htm.
[7] O. Granstrand and M. Holgersson, “Innovation ecosystems: A conceptual review and a new definition,” Technovation, vol. 90–91, no. 102098, 2020.
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