Implications of the Fourth Industrial Age on Higher Education

Higher education in the fourth industrial revolution (HE 4.0) is a complex, dialectical and exciting opportunity which can potentially transform society for the better. The fourth industrial revolution is powered by artificial intelligence and it will transform the workplace from tasks based characteristics to the human centred characteristics. Because of the convergence of man and machine, it will reduce the subject distance between humanities and social science as well as science and technology. This will necessarily require much more interdisciplinary teaching, research and innovation. This paper explores the impact of HE 4.0 on the mission of a university which is teaching, research (including innovation) and service. 1. The Status Quo of Our Society Today, all graduates face a world transformed by technology, in which the Internet, cloud computing, and social media create different opportunities and challenges for formal education systems. As students consider life after graduation, universities are facing questions about their own destiny especially employment. These technologies powered by artificial intelligence are so much transforming the world that social concepts such as “post-work” are more and more defining the present period. This period requires certain skills that are not exactly the same as the skills that were required in the third industrial revolution where information technology was the key driver. These skills are critical thinking, people management, emotional intelligence, judgement, negotiation, cognitive flexibility, as well as knowledge production and management. Our starting point is to investigate the three current megatrends as well as their consequences. 1.1 Categories of Megatrends We argue that one insightful lens of today’s life is based on intelligent technology that is powered by artificial intelligence. Fast changes in physical (e.g., intelligent robots, autonomous drones, driverless cars, 3D printing, and smart sensors), digital (e.g., the internet of things, services, data and even people) and biological (e.g., synthetic biology, individual genetic make-up, and bio-printing) technologies, and generally in the way we work, we learn, and we live, make it a crucial force for economic competitiveness and social development. 1.2 The Fourth Industrial Revolution With the waves of above mentioned breakthroughs in various domains, we gradually find ourselves in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution which is driven by artificial intelligence (AI) and cyberphysical systems (CPS) (Marwala, 2007). To understand the first industrial revolution was catalysed by Newton when he formulated his laws of motion. Because from then onwards motion was better understood and quantified, it was possible to design stem engines that mechanised much of the work that was traditionally done by humans. The second industrial revolution was catalysed by Faraday and Maxwell who unified magnetic and electric forces and this led to electricity generation and electric motor which were instrumental in the assembly lines that have come to dominate many industries. The third industrial revolution was catalysed by the discovery of a transistor which ushered the electronic age that gave us computers and internet. The fourth industrial revolution will revolutionise industries so substantially that much of the work that exists today will not exists in 50 years (Marwala et al., 2006). The next subsections describe hallmarks that characterize the fourth industrial revolution. 1.2.1 Digitisation and Integration of Vertical and Horizontal Value Chains The 4 industrial revolution digitises and vertically integrates processes across the entire organisation. It also integrates horizontally all the internal processes from suppliers to customers. Put simply, it epitomises a shift in paradigm shift from ‘centralized’ to ‘decentralized’ production, whereby machines no longer simple ‘process’ the product, but they are seamlessly integrated into the information network, the business partners and customers. In other words, the idea of consistent digitization and linking of all productive units in an economy is emphasized in the 4 industrial revolution age. 1.2.2 Digitisation of Product and Service Offerings Digitisation of products comprises the extension of current products, and the manufacturing of new digitised products. So far, the major gains for industrial companies have often been on improving the degree of automation but in the fourth industrial age this automation will be more intelligent and selfadaptive as more advances are made in artificial intelligence. The factory floor is moving towards self-regulating production that can be adapted to individual customer demands and has self-learning capability. 1.2.3 Digital Business Models and Customer Access Prominent industrial companies already provide disruptive digital solutions for the purpose of expanding their offerings. In the 4 industrial revolution era, it is possible to flexibly combine different business models with customer access (e.g., production on demand; production on site; and consumer engineering) and thereby creating new kinds of production methods. Disruptive digital business models will focus on generating extra digital revenues and optimizing customer experience in terms of interaction and access. 2. Introduction to Higher Education The connection between education and society is often implied to be one-way where education is expected to fit in with economic and political trends, rather than, opposing them and representing something different. Such general understanding of the relationship between education and the socioeconomic structures and what the education position involves help us to form a projection of future higher education associated with the fourth industrial revolution. 2.1 The History of Higher Education As we can observe, the development of higher education system has gone through the following stages, namely, elite, mass, and post-massification.